You Wouldn't Dare
by Luv2read131
Summary: "I have my reasons." His voice was slow, like drizzling maple syrup over pancakes, and just as rich. "I never do anything without thinking it through first." I folded my arms across my chest. "I don't want to live with you here in your. . .your palace. I don't need this, and my mother sure as hell doesn't. So just leave us alone." He smiled slowly. "I always keep my word, Fray."
1. Chapter 1

Sometimes I wondered why I even bothered.

It was freezing cold outside, rain dripping down my back as I sat in the woods, waiting for him to come and find me. Sebastian would make me wait for hours sometimes. He had no sense of time, or at least that was what I tried to tell myself. I knew, deep down, that he just took pleasure it being late.

Clutching my coat closer to my body, I mumbled a few curses under my breath. It would be easy, oh so easy, to just give up and end it all. But wasn't that the easy way out? Sebastian and I had been going on now for a year and a half, and it wasn't out of love. He wasn't a big believer in the whole affection thingy between boyfriends and girlfriends. He wasn't the type to put his arm around me or whisper words in my ear. Jokes that he knew that only I would understand. No, he wasn't the kind of person to kiss your cheek or make you laugh.

The exact opposite, actually.

Sebastian was one of the most respected people on the east coast. He was ruthless and crushed everything in his path, and people cowered before him. With his eyes the color of charcoal, with matching hair, and skin paler than white snow, he didn't exactly scream _I come in peace!_

But he was protection, protection for my mother and I.

My older brother, Jonathan, had left us when he had turned eighteen. Nearly two years ago now. I missed him more and more everyday, and the sounds of my mother crying could be heard at night sometimes. Jon had been protection enough for us in this world of Shadowhunters. He was the only one who knew what he was doing in my family. My mother hadn't been a Shadowhunter since she was crippled in her late twenties, right after she met dad and had Jon and I. Then there was an accident one day while she was out, and now she spent her days in a wheelchair, painting.

But Jon had been trained.

Dad hadn't trained me, probably because he'd never gotten the chance to. When Jon was sixteen, dad vanished, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

There were very few of our kind left, and no one else within a five mile radius had a drop of Shadowhunter blood. Sebastian had made a bargain with me; that I be his. . .girlfriend for all intents and purposes out in public, but in private, he could do with me as he pleased.

I told him that if it meant my mom and the rest of the village was going to be safe, then I would do it, no questions asked.

And so that was how I ended up here.

Sebastian loved his little games. Nothing gave him more pleasure than playing with people, mind tricks, leaving them alone or doing the simplest methods of torture designed to drive people crazy. Some of them even went out of their minds.

I was no exception.

And so that was how I ended up here, sitting in the woods with my legs aching and my face starting to feel like an ice cube. He had to come soon. He'd never been away for more than two hours, tops.

I had no idea where I was, truth be told. He had blindfolded me and brought me out into the forest and told me to sit tight, he'd be back soon.

Bastard.

It was getting less and less common for him to pull things like this, and I was guessing it was because he had other girlfriends somewhere. Prettier, taller girls who probably had blue eyes and were probably blonde. Hell, he probably had a girlfriend in every little village like the one mom and I lived in. It wouldn't surprise me.

Seb didn't use me for sex all that much anyways. I had no idea what I was doing half of the time, and I was skinny and covered in freckles, as he had pointed out numerous times.

Lately, he'd been more wound up. Snapping at the littlest things, and treating everyone worse than usual. My best guess was that he was most likely butting heads with Jace Herondale once again.

Jace was The Leader. Everyone in America knew of him, and he was one of the greatest Shadowhunters to have ever lived. It didn't help the fact that he was gorgeous, which basically meant that he had girls falling at his feet and had an easy time making deals with other surrounding countries. His cousin, Will Herondale, was second in command, although they didn't live together. They were plastered all over the television stations and whatever else, magazines that no one in my neck of the woods could afford, and they were unstoppable.

Even for someone like Sebastian.

Speaking of, I could slowly start to make out his shape coming towards me through the foliage of the forest. He was hard to see, since he was always dressed in the Shadowhunter black, and his hair and eyes blended in.

"Hey," I called out, forcing a grin onto my face. "I thought you'd forgotten about me or something."

He shrugged. "A few times. But then I remembered your hair," he flicked a stray strand into my face. "And all was well." He frowned. "Have you ever considered maybe dying it? Brown would be good, but blonde would be better."

I pulled one corner of my mouth up, trying not to show how much his comment stung. "What can you do?"

He scowled. "Not talk back, for one. You know I don't like to argue. It's so. . .pointless, Clary. Especially when you know, and I know, that I'll win every time."

I forced out a laugh. "Believe me, I know."

. . .

"Mom?" I called as I stepped into our small, one story house. "Where are you?"

There was a muffled reply that came from upstairs, and I hurried in that direction.

She was sitting in front of one of her homemade canvases again; made mostly out of old, white T-shirts and old newspapers that she'd managed to soak the ink out of before she let them dry. They were an impressive size, and I knew that it made her happy to have something to do all day. Something other than wonder about what had become of her husband and son.

"You look cold, Clary." She said, scolded me as if it was my fault. "Where have you been?"

I shrugged. "With Sebastian. You know he likes to take his time."

She sighed and turned back to her painting. "You shouldn't have to do that, Clary. Not for me and not for anyone else. It's not your responsibility to take care of the whole town you know."

"I know, mom." I answered with a sigh. "But if I can, then I should, right?"

She turned and looked at me, green meeting green. "You do what you have to do, and that's all."

I nodded as she kissed my cheek. "I know, mom."

 **Hello PEOPLE!  
**

 **So welcome to my very first story on Fanfiction! I've been trying to come up with a plot line for a long time now, and I knew that this story was just going to suit these characters! I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, it took me like, forty five minutes to write, which isn't saying all that much.**

 **Happy Thursday!**


	2. Chapter 2

He was fierce, terrifying.

With his dark, long black hair and and eyes like the ocean, he was clearly someone that you wanted to stay out of the way of. His very presence commanded power, and he put everyone around him on edge.

But still, I wasn't satisfied.

Something seemed off about the drawing, almost as if something was missing. With a sigh, I crumpled up the piece of paper and tossed it into the corner of my room. None of my drawings were coming out any good lately, they just seemed to be getting worse and worse.

Flopping back onto the small cot that I called a bed, I fixed my gaze on the ceiling.

Sebastian was out today, doing God knows what with probably many different girls.

Strangely, the thought didn't bother me as much as it should have.

"Clarissa Adele Fray!" Someone called into the house. "Get your ass out here!"

Rolling my eyes, I sat up straight. The voice, of course, belonged to none other than Aline Penhallow, one of the only girls in the village that was around my age and didn't think I was a total freak of nature.

Aline and I had known each other since I was a little girl, having met when we were out in the village one day with our respectable mothers. They introduced us, and we became as close as could be. She was the kind of girl who hit on every kind of boy. Bad boys, good boys, older boys, sometimes even younger boys if she was desperate enough. At times, she could be a little shallow, but I loved her anyways.

She was waiting impatiently for me outside, the excessive tapping of her foot giving away just how annoyed she was.

"And what have you been doing all day?" Aline demanded, flipping some of her long, dark hair over her shoulder. "I've been waiting for- _ever!"_

I rolled my eyes. "Two minutes is not forever, Aline. Believe me." I strode past her and she kept my stride.

"So, were you out with Sebastian yesterday?" She demanded. "I mean, I know he's an asshole and all, but he is kind of h-"

"Yeah, I was out with him." I replied quickly. "He brought me into the woods for a few hours, just. . .well, just because."

Aline shook her head sadly at me. "Honestly, Clary. He may be kind of hot, but you should just ditch him already. Assholes are assholes, after all."

I couldn't help but snicker a little at that. "This coming from the girl who hits on every guy within a two mile radius."

She playfully hit me. "Shut up."

. . .

Sebastian came back late that night.

I was kind of expecting that, but when he entered my room and slowly shut the door behind him, I knew something was up.

I felt my breath catch in my throat, and not in a good way, as he positioned himself behind me. I felt myself swallow.

"Hey," he breathed, slipping his hands underneath my T-shirt and rubbing at my hips. "I missed you."

"Yeah." I mumbled, shrugging out of his touch. "I just. . .I don't think I'm in the mood for this right now, Seb. Okay?"

His grip tightened and I winced, knowing that I was going to have some bruises in the morning."And why not?" He breathed and I caught a whiff of his breath. He was drunk.

"Just because." I said, wiggling away. "Not tonight."

He pulled me back. "Well, I say differently."

. . .

Everything was sore in the morning.

I tried not to move too much, knowing that everything would just hurt more, but Sebastian's arm was draped over my waist. He was going to be so mad when he woke up, probably because I hadn't gotten up yet, and that made me lazy, or that he'd slept with me, which just might make him nuts, because he hated what he did when he was drunk.

Slowly, I got up and tiptoed to the bathroom that was right across the hall. I took a quick shower to rid myself of the imaginary dirt and grime that I felt on my skin, and then I just stood there underneath the water.

It was rare for my mother and I to get hot water that was a little warmer than lukewarm. But this was like some kind of warm, blissful heaven that I missed right away once I had turned the water off.

Wrapping a towel around myself, I snuck back into my room and dressed in a simple pair of jeans and my favorite T-shirt. Knowing it was useless to try and comb my hair, I just left it.

"Slacker," someone muttered from behind me, and I felt my stomach drop. "I would have thought you'd be the first one up in the morning."

I closed my eyes for a moment and turned around. Sebastian was lying there, the sheets pulled up to his waist, which only seemed to emphasize how pale his skin really was, and the dark splotch of his hair against the white of the pillowcase.

"I was," I mumbled under my breath. "I got up, like, fifteen minutes ago."

Sebastian cocked his head to the side. "I faked you out, Clarissa. Now, I'm done here." He stood and stretched, no shame.

I looked away, feeling uncomfortable.

It took him a moment to get dressed, and then he was up and headed to the front door.

Just as he was about to leave, someone knocked.

With a sharp sigh, Sebastian threw open the door. On the other side of it was a boy slouched up against the door frame.

Well, I say boy, but he looked to be around my age; no older than seventeen or eighteen years old. His hair was a rumpled mess of gold, and his eyes were almost the exact same shade. He reminded me of a lion, maybe it was the eyes, but there was a sort of power that radiated off of him, like everyone knew that he was powerful without it being said.

It was, in fact, Jace Herondale.

"Sebastian," Jace said, flashing him a perfectly white smile. "Up to your old tricks again I take it?"

Seb was always careful to hide his emotions, but I could still see the unfamiliar clenching of the muscles of his back underneath his dark T-shirt.

Jace's eyes slid over to me, and for a moment something like self-satisfaction flashed through his eyes. "Hi there," he said, his tone almost mocking but it was almost like he was acting. "Jace Herondale. I'm sure you've heard of me."

Acting or not, this guy was behaving like an asshole. I glared. "You can assume all you like."

He chuckled. "Say, Seb. What would you say if I said that I wanted to have a word with you outside for a moment?"

Sebastian looked wary, but he agreed.

Jace wiggled his fingers at me before the door shut in my face.

. . .

"Look," Jace's voice was low, not the joking manner it had been about thirty seconds ago. "I'm pretty sure we've talked this over, Sebastian. And you agreed."

Sebastian's dark eyes narrowed. "A long time ago. And I still don't see why I should give her up to you. She can be pretty useful when the need is proven, and-"

Quick as a flash, Jace had him pinned up against a nearby tree. "My word is law around here, Sebastian Verlac." Jace's voice was dark, territorial. "And I made a deal. A deal I intend to keep." He jerked his head in the direction out in the direction of the house. "You never said that you were going to treat her the way that you do."

He growled and tried to shove Jace off of him, but he only pressed tighter against his throat. Jace's eyes had taken on a hungry glimmer. "You know what I'm capable of, Seb." He whispered. "And so I'm not going to ask you again."

Sebastian growled. "Fine. She's yours."

Jace's lips pulled up into a smirk. "Excellent."

. . .

They came back in a few minutes later.

I straightened when I saw them, feeling something in my stomach drop when I saw the triumphant expression on Jace's face, and the way Sebastian looked thoroughly irritated.

Crap.

As if sensing my discomfort, Jace grinned mockingly. "Get your coat, we're leaving."

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

Jace picked at his cuticles. "You won't be doing it alone. Your mother is coming with us."

I turned on him. "No, she's not. And neither am I."

Jace lost all signs of his friendly, yet still terrifying, teasing. His amber eyes seemed to darken a shade as he watched me. "Yes, you are."

So, I guess arguing with what would assumed to be the equivalent of the president of the United States of America was not a good idea.

About twenty minutes later, my mom and I found ourselves in the back of Jace Herondale's ridiculously large car.

Strangely, my mother was seemingly completely unperturbed by the entire situation, but I was still trying to fight Jace tooth and nail.

"Can it, short stuff." He said, finally cutting through my complaints. "You lost."

And with that, we drove off.

 **So, I know that this chapter threw a ton of stuff at you guys and it's a little confusing as to why Jace Herondale, sensation of the New World just HAPPENED to show up at Clary Fray's doorstep, but it'll all get sorted out.**

 **Also, I know this chapter came VERY soon! I won't usually update everyday, but I was on a rampage because I had some angry jock in gym class get all frustrated with me because I couldn't block someone who had fifty pounds and eight inches on me in BASKETBALL, which is not a good idea for short people who have no experience to be playing. So yeah. You can thank him for this early update.**

 **Anyways, it's FRIDAY PEOPLE! I seriously need another day off, those four days of school really drained me.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this new chapter, and have a GREAT WEEKEND! ;)**

 **-Sara**


	3. Chapter 3

It had been three days.

A whole seventy two hours since my entire life, everything that I once knew, was gone.

My life wasn't my own anymore, and it belonged to a self-centered, egotistical asshole who thought he was better than everyone else.

I could tell Jace was growing impatient with my petulant behavior by the way he'd come and knock on my door once every half hour like clockwork. Each time I'd snap at him to leave me alone.

Surprisingly, he did.

My mother was in the room next door, and the only time I ever came out of my room was to see how she was. I hadn't eaten, and I wasn't planning to.

Not until he let me go.

. . .

"Clary," Jace ground out as he knocked on my door yet again. "I'm getting sick of this. You're going to starve in there without anything to eat."

I wrapped my arms tighter around my hollow stomach. "Go away," I muttered, trying my hardest not to sound as weak as I was feeling. "I don't want to talk to you, now or ever."

There was silence on the other side of the door, and for a second, I was sure that I had won.

For thirty minutes, at least.

My victory was short-lived, because about two minutes later, there was a slight jiggling noise, a clang of keys, and Jace Herondale was standing in my room.

Joy.

I narrowed my eyes at his figure in the doorway. Dressed in his usual black attire from head to toe, he somehow still managed to be eye catching. His blonde hair was artfully disheveled, and his gold eyes shown with something akin to annoyance.

"Come on," he jerked his head in the direction of the doorway. "I'm about through with your little games. You haven't showered for three days, Fray. You smell and I know you're not getting much sleep. You wake me up every other hour with your screaming. You haven't eaten, and I want to know why."

"Why?" I hissed, curling my fingers into a fist. "Because I hate it here. I hate your stupid mansion and your stupid limo, and I hate you. I had never liked you even when I saw you on TV. So seeing you in the flesh sure doesn't make me appreciate you any more."

I had expected Jace to show some kind of emotion, but his face was still hard to read. "Come on, then." His voice was even. "Let's start over."

Looking back, there are a million different ways that the situation could have played out; I simply could have nodded and smiled, shaking his hand and agreeing to his awful idea. Or I could have made him even more angry, kicking him out of my room in the process.

But none of those things happened.

Somehow, I ended up standing right in front of Jace. His expression collapsed into relief, and I knew that he thought that I was finally giving in to his power.

How wrong he was.

When Jace reached out his hand, I growled like some kind of feral mirror cat and bit his finger.

With a small yelp, Jace drew his hand back, blood oozing from the wound, which was a decent size. "Jesus, women. I wasn't going to haul you off to the gallows or anything. I just wanted you to take a shower!"

I smirked, folding my arms across my chest, thinking that I had won.

Jace didn't let this thought last for more than five seconds before he had reached down and slung me over his shoulder so that my head hit his lower back.

"Ouch!" I groaned, feeling all of the blood rush to my head. "Was that really necessary?!"

He shrugged, his shoulder blade jabbing into my stomach. "Mm hm."

I would have fought him harder, but in truth, I was exhausted. Who knew not eating could take so much out of a person? Like Jace had pointed out earlier, I hadn't exactly been sleeping well on top of that.

Closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep.

. . .

When I woke later, the events of before snapped into my mind.

With a groan, I rolled over and tried to shut my eyes again, blocking out the burning light of the sun. I was running really short on luck today.

Giving up on the idea of getting any further kind of sleep, I sat up in the bed.

Someone had dressed me in a pair of black, fitted leggings and a plain white T-shirt. I hoped that it hadn't been Jace. My hair was clean too, curling softly around my shoulders where it was still damp.

The second thing I noticed was that there was a note on my bedside table.

With a frown, I took it and unfolded the crisp paper, words carefully formed on the surface in dark ink.

 _Clary,_

 _First off, my maid dressed you and gave you a bath. Secondly, I won't try to force you into anything anymore, but you have to understand that this is my house and you will do as I wish. I won't be so lenient next time._

 _Jace_

My eyes scanned over the paper a few more times before I felt the disbelief set in.

Was he _threatening_ me? Who did that?!

Feeling my anger boil over, I crumpled up the note and flung it into the far corner of the room. Jace could threaten me with whatever he liked. It didn't matter anymore.

Almost nothing did.

. . .

My stomach growled.

This was nothing new, but it was louder this time, more insistent.

"Shut up," I mumbled. "If I go, you're coming down with me."

It had been another day and a half, and I was still on my food strike. There was no way that I was going to make it so that I owed Jace anything, and taking his food would mean just that.

But I was pretty hungry.

With a moan, I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow. I had gone days without food before, but that was when there wasn't some just merely downstairs where I could go and get it at any time that I wanted.

The temptation was growing too great.

 _Just go downstairs,_ a voice at the back of my head whispered. _Get food and then come back up into your room. Jace will never even know that you were there._

Clarissa Fray, you are a true genius.

Quickly and quietly, I tiptoed across the floor and opened up my bedroom door, slipping out into the empty hallway.

I must have been wandering around for at least a half hour until I found the kitchen, which must have been one of the biggest rooms in the entire house.

Cabinets, cupboards and two refrigerators decorated the huge space, and I smiled to myself.

 _I win._

"You really didn't think I was that stupid; did you?"

Feeling my heart jump up into my throat from the surprise, I whirled around.

Jace stood there, slouched up against the kitchen island. He was examining his nail beds with minimal interest, though I was sure that I caught a triumphant gleam in his eye.

Jerk.

"Honestly, Clarissa." Jace drawled on. "I knew you were going to try something like this at some point. It's the oldest trick in the book." His amber eyes gleamed in the darkness, resembling a cat's. "A book I read quite often, mind you."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, you caught me. Now what? Sentence me back to my room for eternity? Put me in the dungeons?"

He wrinkled his perfect nose. "Nah, not my style. I was thinking something a little more. . .creative."

I gulped. I did not like where this was going.

. . .

I arched an eyebrow as I stared down at the food. "Um, I don't-"

Jace nudged the plate towards me. "Just eat it, Fray. We all know that you're starving."

Even at one a.m, Jace turned out to be an exemplary cook. He had spent the past forty minutes cooking for me, and I couldn't help but admit that it was a nice gesture.

The plate that sat in front of me looked a little iffy.

"It's my best recipe." Jace said with a yawn, tipping his chair back. "Go ahead," he said generously. "Eat up, fruitcake."

I felt my face crinkle in disgust. "It's green."

His eyes rolled up to the ceiling. "We've got our next Einstein over here. Of course it's green!"

"Yeah, but why?"

Jace scratched his head. "Part of what makes Dr. Seuss so strange."

"Green eggs and ham," I muttered under my breath. "Here I come."

Jace was frowning intently as he watched me eat, and I felt myself start to grow defensive.

"What?" I demanded.

Holding his hands up in surrender, Jace slowly smiled and then backed out of the room.

Freaky.

I crammed the rest of my food into my mouth and then darted out into the hallway, expecting to see Jace hanging around there or something.

But he was gone.

Officially freaked out, I went up to my room and locked my door.

There was no way I was going to let him sneak past me again.

 **Haha, she has no idea what's in for her :)**

 **So I managed to survive basketball for the second time, and I think the angry jock and I have come to an understanding. I won't be socking anyone in the face with a basketball anytime soon, people. But it is only Tuesday, so you never know.**

 **Anyways, my best friend and I still haven't exchanged Christmas presents yet, which has been our yearly tradition since we were at least seven.**

 **Currently, I am sitting on my bed listening to old T-Swift songs, because I love that girl before she went all crazy on everyone.**

 **Speak Now is officially on the soundtrack for my life.**


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a week since Jace and I had come to our little understanding.

Don't get me wrong or anything, we still were no where near being friendly with each other. Just because he'd decided to get up off of his lazy ass and do something that wasn't completely hostile did not mean that we were suddenly BFFs.

I still hadn't made any move to sleep on the bed that had been provided. In my short seventeen years on this Earth, I had never slept on anything softer than a worn out old military bed that smelled like mildew, and I wasn't just about ready to make the transition to something that was fit for a queen to sleep on.

Plus, the floor alone was softer than my old bed at home. It must have been at least five inches of thick carpet, and I could hardly feel the floor beneath me as I curled up with my blanket at night.

And I didn't want to owe him anything either.

For all I knew, the whole thing could just be some sort of huge trap that he was waiting for me to fall into.

So I wasn't about to get too comfortable.

. . .

My first peaceful sleep was interrupted by what sounded like small, feral beasts.

Feeling every inch of my body go into high alert, I sat up, listening hard for any more of the sounds.

At first I thought I had imagined it, but then they happened again. . .and again. Narrowing my eyes, I threw off the blankets and stood up, grabbing a thin hoodie that I had come to love over the course of the past week.

I followed the sounds down the stairs of Jace's ridiculously large house, finally stopping outside of a room with large, metal doors.

Well, it certainly looked inviting.

Cracking my knuckles, I pushed one of the doors open.

And inside was something that I never would have expected to witness.

Jace was standing in the center of the room on a blue mat. Maybe standing wasn't the right word. He was crouched low on the ground and I could only see the side of his face from where I was standing.

He was wearing another one of his black T-shirts and a loose pair of sweats, both of which were darkened with sweat. His hair was ruffled, some of it plastered to his forehead. This was just too strange, even for me.

"Um," I called out. "Good morning?"

Jace spun around, and in that same moment something from the ceiling flew and landed on top of him, causing him to let out an 'oomph' in his state of shock.

The thing-which I was learning was a person-stood up and let out a crow of triumph. "And he said it couldn't be done! Little cousin, you still have a lot of work to do."

Jace muttered something under his breath that I didn't quite catch. The other boy was grinning like an idiot.

A very attractive idiot.

Like Jace, this boy was very eye-catching, but in a completely different way. Where Jace was all gold when it came to his looks, the other boy reminded me of the night sky. He had ruffled black curls springing up around his head, and his eyes were _blue,_ like the petals of a pansy flower the blue of a bottle glass.

"Hello," he said, grinning like a madman. "I'm Will Herondale; Jace's cousin. You must be Clarissa Fray. Although Jace mentioned that you go by Clary and so did-"

Jace clamped a hand over Will's mouth, and some kind of exchanged passed between the two boys as they engaged in some sort of staring contest.

Needless to say, it was a pretty awkward situation.

Will, who I was beginning to learn hardly took anything seriously, wiggled his fingers at me. "I'm here quite a bit, you see." His voice carried some kind of accent, something that sounded a bit like Welsh. "Poor little Jacey gets lonely without me. Don't you?" Will crooned, grabbing his cousin and putting him into a headlock. Jace managed to wiggle out of his hold, batting Will away.

I decided that I liked him. Anyone who could make Jace miserable was definitely going to be a good friend of mine.

"Shut up." Jace said with a scowl that I was learning was a part of his natural facial expression.

Will smirked. "Fat chance of that."

I could tell the boys were about to start their bickering all over again, but someone interrupted them.

"Going at it again?"

Will spun around and his face broke out into a true, genuine smile that lit up his whole face. I turned to see what had made him so happy.

A girl, probably a few years older than I was, stood there in the doorway. She had long, brown cascading hair and smooth gray eyes. I would have felt uneasy around her, but when her eyes landed on me, she smiled and stuck out her hand.

"Tessa Gray." She introduced herself. "I'm Will's soon-to-be wife."

Speaking of the devil, Will got up and walked over to where we stood; wrapping an arm around Tessa's waist and pulling her close, kissing the top of her head.

"Clary Fray," I replied, shaking her outstretched hand. "Although everyone else seems to know that already."

"Only because some people are incredibly nosy." Jace said, his voice coming from right behind where I stood. I jumped a little.

Will snorted. "I could hardly be called nosy. Observant, perhaps."

Jace muttered something under his breath that I didn't catch, but Will did.

"If you'll excuse me," he said, unwinding his arm from around Tessa's waist. "I have to go and beat the stuffing out of that fine gentleman over there."

Tessa rolled her eyes as Jace and Will went at it again.

"Come on, Clary." She said. "We should go raid Jace's kitchen."

. . .

Jace, as I soon found out, was a neat freak.

This was probably the last thing that I would have expected of a teenage boy, since any that I knew happened to be incredibly messy, Sebastian included.

The thought of his room made me shudder.

Tessa popped open some of the cupboards, her eyes wandering over the many boxes of cereal that were stashed up in Jace's cupboards. "Does any of this look good to you?" She asked, glancing over at me.

I shrugged as I hopped up onto a stool. "Whatever works for you."

She grinned, and I knew that we were going to be good friends. "Well, then I have something in mind."

Over the next thirty minutes I learned that Tessa Gray loved bacon, had an unhealthy obsession with Charles Dickens books, and wanted to become an author.

"But I haven't found it yet," she said with a sigh. "My big idea for a book, I mean. There's so much to write about, and if I wanted to be someone like J.K Rowling, well, that would take a lot of work. Good books are so hard to come by these days; but if I could, I'd write one that could change someone's whole perspective, something different that's never been done before. You know what I mean?"

I nodded. I knew exactly what she was talking about. "Does Will read a lot too?"

She laughed. "Sometimes I think he reads more than I do. It's actually how we met; I was trying to get a book out of the library, _The Count of Monte Cristo._ We both had our eyes on it and came to pick it up on the same day, and there was a big fight in the middle of the Classics section over who should get the book." She shook her head. "And then he told me that if I went out on one date with him, I could have the book. I took the opportunity, since it was the only library that had the book within a thirty mile radius, and so we went on our date, and that was it." She said with a shrug. "He and I went out for two years before he asked me to marry him a month ago."

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if he didn't show up and the library that day?"

Tessa nodded, sipping her tea. "All the time. Love is such a strange thing; it can happen in a moment or over the course of years. Some people just know, and it can take others nearly a lifetime to realize. I've been lucky," she murmured. "My father was going to marry me off to some awful man, but then once Will and I fell in love, he gladly gave in."

I was about to say something else when Will and Jace walked in, seemingly happy again until Jace saw the state of his kitchen.

"Tessa," he groaned. "Not this again."

Will walked over to her and muttered something just loud enough for Tessa and I to hear.

"Nice work, love."

. . .

As it turned out, Jace's family was bigger than I had originally thought.

Besides Will, Jace had one other cousin named Cecily. If she was anything like Will, I knew that we were going to get along just fine.

The Lightwoods were a different story. They were more family than friends, Robert and Maryse Lightwood had three children; Alec, Isabelle and Max. Will explained all of this to me, mentioning also that Isabelle had a boyfriend named Simon, and Alec was engaged to a guy named Magnus.

"So yes," he continued. "There's more of them I'm sure, but that's all that really comes to mind at the moment." He thought hard. "At any rate, be sure to be careful around Jace. He isn't the most. . .patient of people, and he's been known to overreact."

I shrugged. "I think I can take him."

Will shot me a warning look. "I'm serious, Clary. Jace is more powerful than any of us, and he can do some serious damage when the need strikes him. No matter who it is."

 _Great._ I thought to myself. _I'm living with a crazy, kidnapping psychopath._

This was really shaping out to be my year.

 **AHH! IT'S FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH!**

 **I'm not really a big superstitious person, but last year when I walked into English on the thirteenth, a Friday, mind you, there were these little bugs all over the floor that were all upside down. I kid you not, people. It was FREAKING weird. And then I got an unknown rash on my forehead that disappeared about an hour later, but that's not nearly as exciting.**

 **Until sometime next week. . .**


	5. Chapter 5

I knocked softly on my mother's door, listening intently for her soft voice.

But there was nothing.

I knocked again, harder this time. Fear began pulsing through my veins when there wasn't a response.

"Mom!" I nearly screamed, feeling everything in me give way. "Where are you?!"

My legs fell out from underneath me, but before I hit the floor, a strong pair of arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me into the air.

I fought viciously, punching and kicking whoever it was.

"Clary," the voice was gruff. "You're having a bad dream. It's not real."

My eyes snapped open as I realized that I was still in my room, and my knuckles were red and bleeding from where I had been banging them up against the door. Jace noticed this about the same time that I did and set me down with a sigh.

"I'll be right back."

He exited my room and came back a few minutes later with something in his hands.

"Here," he said, holding a small, white pill out to me. "This will make you feel better."

I glared at it suspiciously. "How do I know that you're not trying to poison me or something?"

Jace made an impatient noise at the back of his throat. "Just eat it, will you? It's for the pain."

My jaw tightened as stubbornness set in. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Jace ran a tired hand over his face. "I'm really not in the mood tonight, Fray. Now, I can just be as nice and leave you alone to deal with this yourself, which might not go over too well."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the pill, dry swallowing it. "Fine."

"You're welcome." Jace muttered as his eyebrows furrowed and he went to work on my hands. He dabbed some kind of ointment on my knuckles that stung at first, and I winced a little. Jace ignored me as he carefully wrapped both of my palms with the white gauze. "There. You should be good as new in another day or so."

I shrugged. "Thanks, Jace."

He nodded. "And be careful next time when you start banging on your door at two thirty in the morning. Keep it to yourself, okay?"

My lips twitched. "Sure. No promises."

Shaking his head, Jace walked out and shut the door quietly behind him.

. . .

My bad dreams still continued.

They became a regular occurrence during late nights, and I knew that I was driving Jace near to the edge of insanity. I didn't want him to help me, I didn't need his help, for crying out loud. But every night without fail he'd still come, placing me back into my own bed before leaving me there, tears still streaming down my cheeks.

Time seemed to tick by slowly when I was living with Jace. Unlike at home, there wasn't much to do to keep a person busy, unless I wanted to seek out the Devil himself and ask him if he wanted to play checkers.

Like that was going to happen.

Except for our encounters at nighttime, Jace and I rarely spoke. He always seemed to be off doing something, whether it was in the house or out of it, and my mother painted the days away. Will and Tessa didn't come over as often as I had thought that they would, and so that left me to entertain myself.

Jace's house was big, there was no doubt about that. But by the time a week had passed, I was sure that I had explored every nook and cranny that was declared to be of interest.

So I wasn't expecting much the day that I walked downstairs at eight thirty, only to find a girl with long, raven black hair that spilled to her narrow waist standing at the stove, narrowing her eyes at something as it burned in the frying pan.

Without thinking, I jumped into attack mode.

The girl's eyes widened when she saw me coming at her, but her reflexes were pretty good. She stopped me mid swing and pushed me backwards into a chair.

"Sit," she ordered, scooping out some of he badly blackened eggs and dishing them out onto a plate. "And eat."

I raised my eyebrows. "Um, who the hell are you?"

"Isabelle Lightwood. Now eat the damn eggs."

"I don't mean to offend you or anything, but I-"

"I said, eat."

"Leave her alone, Iz."

In the doorway stood Jace, his golden eyes lazily sliding over the scene that was unfolding before him. His hair was in a perfect disarray, and I found myself wondering whether he did it on purpose or if he just woke up like that. If it was the latter, then that just wasn't fair.

Isabelle opened her mouth to protest, but Jace shot her a look. "Clary and I have some. . .training to do."

At this, I felt my eyes flatten into straight lines. "You wish."

Jace let out a heavy sigh through his nose. "Get going. Eat something that Izzy didn't cook, and get your ass into the training room."

I folded my arms across my chest. "Why don't you make me?"

Will's words echoed in the back of my head, but I was too determined to ignore them.

At this, Jace's eyes darkened dangerously and he stalked across the room, his hands gripping my shoulders so tightly that I knew I was going to have a bruise in two places tomorrow.

Ouch.

"You need to understand something," he said, his voice lowering in my ear. "I have the power to do anything that I wish with you, do you get that now? I warned you once, Clarissa. So don't make the mistake of disobeying me again. Are we clear?"

I nodded, feeling the hatred I had for him multiply by about a hundred. "Crystal." I spat.

Without saying another word, Jace released my shoulders and stalked from the room, not looking back once.

Isabelle let out a low whistle under her breath. "You're walking on thin ice here." She muttered. "I'd be careful if I were you."

"Why is he so bitter? I haven't even done anything to him!"

Isabelle shrugged, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. "You haven't. Something happened once, and Jace blames himself for it. That's all."

I didn't push the issue, knowing already that I wasn't going to get anything else out of her.

. . .

Days went by in slow progression.

I had long since given up on trying to find ways to get my mother and I out of here, because it was all too clear that Jace had every kind of defense mechanism on his stupid mansion.

I swear, even the toilets had some kind of protection.

Jace and I remained carefully distant, since I didn't have any sort of desire to go anywhere near him after our little episode a day or so ago. He wasn't one to come up and start conversation anyways, so it was a relief for the both of us.

At least, that's what I thought.

At seven a.m the next morning, my door was banged open and there stood Jace himself, already dressed.

I squinted at him, my vision blurry after a deep sleep. "What do you want now?"

"Get up," he said, his tone short. "We've got training to do."

I scowled and mashed my face into the mattress. "Not happening."

Jace pulled the blankets off of me. "It is when I say it is. You have ten minutes to get dressed and meet me in the training room."

With that, he turned around and stalked out, nearly slamming the door shut behind him.

Normally I would have protested, but I really wasn't in the mood for Jace's crap this early. Or ever.

Sliding out of the bed that I had finally decided to start sleeping in, I wandered over to the closet, where an array of clothes awaited me.

I usually wore the same thing pretty much everyday, but my clothes were so dirty that they were starting to fall apart, hardly offering any kind of coverage. I picked out a simple dark blue T-shirt and a pair of gray sweatpants.

After I had quickly showered and threw on the clothes, I headed down the stairs and paused outside of the training room, where the metal doors were left wide open for once.

Jace, however, was nowhere in sight.

"Jace?" I called, stepping into the room. "I'm-"

Something flew by me so fast that I didn't even see it, stopping at the other end of the training room.

Jace stood there, barely looking winded as he drew something out of his back pocket and drew something on his arm, the stick flashing.

"This is your first lesson in Shadowhunter training," he began. "Typically, children begin this at a rather young age, but since you haven't, we have to start from the beginning. Normally we'd start with learning of the runes, but I think you can handle the basic self-dense moves for now."

"Wait, what am I-"

Before I could blink, Jace had somehow moved behind me. "First lesson; try and attack me."

I knew it was a trick. I had only been here for. . .well, I wasn't exactly sure. But I already knew Jace well enough to know that he was fooling around with me. he was one of the greatest Shadowhunters in the world. He was in the top five. There was no way that I, little Clary Fray, stood a chance against him; he knew that and I knew that.

But the temptation to go after him was still too great.

I leapt at him, my fists flying.

Jace didn't move out of the way, instead just catching my wrists in his hands. "Try again, Fray. And this time don't be so obvious about it."

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but Jace rolled his eyes. "Over there, Fray. Start again."

We went at it like this for at least another hour. Jace was relentless; always just out of reach. I'd always think that I had him before he'd just take a little step to the left or to the right, evidently out of my reach.

I gave up.

"This is impossible," I said with a defeated groan. "Why are we even bothering?"

Jace folded his arms across his chest. "Because you need to. Get up and try again."

"Why should I?" I snapped. "This is clearly just some kind of twisted amusement for you, a chance to see me, someone you hate, fail at something that you're good at. You could kill me right now without batting an eyelash, and it wouldn't even make a difference to you! Do you even care about anyone but yourself?!"

"You don't know anything about me," he said, his voice cooler than a glacier of ice. "So stop pretending that you do."

And just like that, he was gone.

 **Sooooo, I was asked by someone if there was going to be more Clace coming up soon, and FEAR NOT. Jace may be acting like a total jerk right now, but he's never been the warm and cuddly teddy bear type. I plan to make all of you smile when we get to the mushy gushy stuff, guys. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

Jace wasn't as deterred as I thought he was going to be.

In my head I had painted him out to be the more brooding, moody type who did more whining that anything else. Maybe it was because he seemed to have a hobby of plucking random girls out from oblivion and placing them into his castle of a home, ignoring them for days on end.

So yeah. It was a little bit of a surprise when he barged into my room again the next morning.

I was beginning to wonder if he owned any other clothing that wasn't black. Either he was emo. . .or just really liked the color? I mean, I knew that Shadowhunters always wore black when going into battle, my father had taught me that if nothing else. But Jace seemed to have some kind of thing for the color black. I smirked at the thought of him writing gothic poetry in his free time.

"I don't know what's so funny, Fray." He snapped. "But I need you to get your ass out of bed and move it. Right now."

I rolled over. "Give me one good reason why."

Jace leered at me. "Because you're completely defenseless. Now move."

He didn't exactly leave me any room to argue with him.

For the second time that week, I got up out of bed and threw on some clothes, hardly even paying attention to what I was wearing.

Like yesterday, Jace and I started off with attacking, and he was relentless about it. We must have spent at least another hour and a half on it before I could feel my exasperation beginning to kick in.

He didn't seem to be breaking a sweat, which hardly seemed fair. I had been chasing him around, and all he did was step to the side to duck me, like it was all just a game to him.

As I took my stance for what felt like the zillionth time, I knew that I had to try something different. If Jace was just going to step out of the way, that meant that I was being far too predictable. I needed something different, something like a sneak attack.

Slowly, I started moving around him. He was watching me out of the corner of his eye the whole time, and I glanced down at his feet. They were positioned to the side a little, like he was ready to step out of the way at a moment's notice.

I smiled to myself. Got you.

This time, I quickly so that I was behind Jace and tackled him, jumping on his back.

He grunted as I landed on him. "Not bad, Fray."

I tightened my arms around his neck. "Prepare to die."

He laughed and it rumbled in his chest. "Sure thing. Wow, you don't weigh more than a sack of flour."

I narrowed my eyes. "Shut up. At least I'm not the size of a hippo!"

Jace gasped dramatically. "Did you just call me fat? I much prefer to think of myself as muscular, but if you say so. . ."

It was then that I realized what I was doing.

I couldn't make friends with Jace Herondale, the same boy who had plucked me from oblivion and plopped me into his palace. I couldn't. He could attack at any moment, even his cousin had said that he was unpredictable, dangerous.

I couldn't risk getting myself or my mother hurt.

I jumped off of his back before he could do any further damage to my very small ego. "Thanks for the lesson, Jace."

He shrugged. "No problem."

Giving him a tight-lipped smile, I practically ran from the training room.

. . .

I knocked softly on my mother's door.

I hadn't visited her much in the time that we'd been here, but the maids had been taking good care of her. She was the kind of person who trusted easily, and my brother had been hyper aware of that. He had been extra cautious with her, knowing that if a serial killer was nice enough to her, then she just might invite him over for a cup of tea.

So, yeah, I had to look out for her.

"Come in," she called, and I slowly opened the door.

She was sitting in her wheelchair in front of a rather large canvas, painting. Truth be told, I had always loved drawing, but it was so rare that I found the time to do it. When I was back home, Sebastian was always dragging me off to play some kind of sick, twisted game with him, or Aline and I were trying to hide from her twelve brothers and sisters.

Jace hadn't given mom or I any time to pack any stuff when we came here, so my beloved drawings were still at my house.

"Hi, mom." I greeted her, and she turned with a smile.

"Clary! This art supplies is wonderful, some of the most amazing quality that I've ever seen! It's certainly better than some of the finger-painting that you and I had to do at home."

I nodded in agreement, letting my fingers run over the expensive paper. "Yeah, it's pretty amazing stuff."

"That nice young man gave it to me." She said, seemingly distracted as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing as she went over a tricky part of the artwork. "He's been nothing but kind since we've gotten here."

"Maybe to you," I said under my breath, knowing that she couldn't hear me.

"What was that dear?" My mom asked.

Quickly, I shook my head. "Nothing, mom. Don't worry about it."

She didn't even seem to take note of my expression as she turned back to her artwork.

I held in a sigh. Figures.

. . .

They say to keep on dreaming.

I say stop.

My dreams, or rather nightmares, had been keeping me awake for hours on end. I wished that they would just go away and leave me alone; after all, I wasn't getting out of here anytime soon and they weren't exactly helping with the fear factor.

So I sat up in bed that night, my knees drawn up to my chest as I tried to take comfort in the warm glow from the lamp that sat beside my bed. The rest of the house was completely silent.

Until the doorknob turned.

I swear my heart literally stopped in my chest.

Tearing the covers over my head, I lay there in complete silence, waiting for whatever it was to come out and. . .eat me?

Okay, so maybe that was a little far fetched, but anything seems rational at 2 am.

"Clary?"

I take it back. Where was the monster when you needed him?

Slowly, I peeled the blankets back and blinked, my own green eyes meeting gold.

Jace stood there casually, an ironic little smirk plastered to his lips. I felt irritation flare in my chest at the mere sight of him. Pathetic.

"Go away," I spat. "You're the last person I want to see right now."

His expression didn't waver as he gave me a casual shrug. "You're very lucky, Fray. Many women would have been more than happy to find me in their bedrooms in the early hours of morning."

I shook my head. "Look, I'm really not in the mood tonight." I drew my knees up to my chest. "I want to go home."

Jace sighed and leaned against the door frame. "Don't we all?"

I glared at him. "At least you didn't-"

"At least I didn't what? Get pulled into some rich house where I could have everything that I wanted? Believe me, Fray. I would have taken that option any day over what happened when I was a kid. Get over yourself."

"Why are you doing this anyways?" I demanded.

Jace's eyes slid lazily over me. "I have my reasons." His voice was slow, like drizzling maple syrup over pancakes, and just as rich. "I never do anything without thinking it through first."

I folded my arms tightly across my chest. "I don't want to live here with you in your. . .your _palace._ I don't need this, and my mother sure as hell doesn't. So why can't you just leave us alone?"

He grinned slowly, reminding me of a lion suddenly. "Strangely, it's not my choice, Fray."

"Then whose is it?"

I doubt Jace even heard my last question, because by then he was already out of the room, shutting the door with a _thump_ behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

Isabelle strode in that next morning with a boy in tow.

This didn't surprise me or anything, I had already pegged Isabelle as the kind of girl who liked to have boyfriends, and a lot of them. But I always thought she'd go for the ones who were more like Jace and less like. . .well, this guy.

He had brown hair that stuck up in springy curls around his pale face, and a pair of thick, black glass frames were askew on the crook of his nose. Behind the glasses were a pair of intelligent brown eyes that looked friendly enough.

"Clary, this is Simon." Isabelle said. "He's a friend of Alec's, and I thought you two should meet each other."

Although I still had yet to meet Alec, Simon seemed like the type of person who I was likely to get along with. Everyone around here seemed to be so beautiful, ethereal looking. And I was nothing special. Simon seemed so normal, average.

And I liked that.

"Oh," I said, sticking out my hand and smiling. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Clary Fray."

Simon nodded. "Well, I'm Simon, but you knew that already."

Isabelle was watching the exchange between the two of us, her expression satisfied. "Well. . .I'm going to go and find Jace. Bye!"

Even though I wanted to protest, she was out of the room before I could even open up my mouth.

So much for that.

"So," Simon continued after a few moments of awkward silence. "Do you like video games?"

. . .

An hour later, we had an answer to his question.

Video games were the turn of the century about a hundred years ago, but Simon loved collecting old video gaming systems. I discovered that he was a beast at a game called _Call of Duty,_ which had pretty cool graphics I thought, but Simon informed me that they were almost completely outdated.

"They don't make them like this anymore, I had to look for this one for a long time." He explained, killing off another enemy. "Now, they're all motion sensitive and you don't even need a screen or a remote to control them. All virtual."

"I think I like this one better." I replied.

Simon grinned at me. "Me too."

"So, are you a Shadowhunter too?"

"Well. . .kind of. I just started my training about a year and a half ago, Izzy taught me for the longest time since she, Alec and Max were all born and bred. But not me. My parents died a few years ago and Alec was walking by one day, and I could see him, you know? So that's how they knew that I was kind of like you, and that I needed training to be great."

"Yeah. Jace just came up one day and basically kidnapped me. He says that he had some kind of reasoning for it, but I'm not seeing it. I mean, he could just have picked someone else too. You know?"

Simon nodded. "I do know. And I'm sorry that you have to be here."

And for the first time since I'd gotten here, I felt real and true relief.

Someone finally understood, someone with a situation just like mine.

The tight knot that I'd been unknowingly experiencing loosened in my chest, and I smiled.

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

. . .

"You have to tell her sooner rather than later, you know." Will said, his voice completely serious for once. "She doesn't know why she's here, and maybe she'll be more willing to cooperate when she finds out why-"

Jace snarled, cutting Will off mid-sentence. "I can't tell her. Otherwise the whole deal is off. He told me that she'd be difficult about it, and I can get her to cooperate with me, Will. I never break my promises."

His cousin snorted. "Stop being so noble all of the time. She hates it here, she hates _you._ What makes you think that she's suddenly going to wake up one day and decide that what you're doing is actually right for her?"

Jace shook his head, raking a hand through his hair. "I know she hates me. But that bastard Sebastian wasn't treating her right, Will. Anything has to be better than that, right?"

He shook his head. "Not if you're not treating her any better."

Jace threw himself back into a chair. "No. I am. Maybe I am an asshole and all of that, and she can think of me what she likes. But Seb was awful, Will. He was with numerous other girls at the same time, not to mention the little games that he used to play with her, always bragging about it. She's safe here. I won't hurt her."

Will's blue eyes locked on his cousin's amber ones. "And if you do?" His voice was soft. "You're not the gentlest of people, you know it and I know it. What happens when you suddenly get angry and blow up on her? It happens to all of us, Jace. She's still so fragile, and you're one of the most powerful people in the world. Will you keep your promise?"

Jace ground his teeth together. "I've kept myself from hurting her this long. I should be fine. And don't worry about me, worry about the girl that you're marrying. I can take care of myself. Got it?"

His cousin nodded, not without rolling his eyes. "Understood, Sargent."

Jace couldn't help himself; he grinned. "Good."

. . .

They were turning purple.

Seb had never been the nicest person, and that was always made painfully clear to Clary every time she looked in the mirror and saw yet another bruise forming on her arms, torso, or legs.

Jace was no better.

Sure, she knew how to be frustrating. It was part of the job description of being a little sister and having an older brother. But Jace's temper shook so easily, and she had the scars to prove it.

What an ass.

With a sigh and a frown, she pulled up the straps on her top.

There wasn't much she could do about it.

At least he didn't want sex. Not yet anyways. She imagined that he probably had a million girls at his beck and call, and the thought forced bile to rise in Clary's throat. Ugh. She hadn't seen any of his girlfriends since she'd gotten here, but who knew?

It was late at night and the rest of the house was asleep. Nighttime had always been Clary's favorite, mostly because that meant that there was no one else around to bother her, unless Sebastian decided to show up. But he wasn't here, it was just her and stupid Jace.

She scowled at the thought of him. He was miserable and impossible, not exactly someone that she enjoyed spending time with.

Clary hated him.

Clary had never hated anyone before, besides Sebastian of course. Her father had always said that you had to know someone to hate them, otherwise, it was just dislike.

 _Okay, so maybe hate is a strong word, but what else am I supposed to say?_

With a heavy sigh, Clary climbed back into her bed and closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off to sleep.

 **WOW. Can I just say that you guys are seriously awesome?**

 **I read every one of your reviews, and I know that there are a ton of unanswered questions in this book! BonnieGal7, hang in there! I've got an interesting plot for this story, and Jace's intentions and past will be revealed.**

 **Eventually. . .**

 **Anyways, Alec and Magnus are going to be a part of the story too, because honestly, I love those guys.**

 **So thanks so much for all of the comments, because I probably would have stopped this story at the first chapter without all of you.**

 **Hope you liked this one!**


	8. Chapter 8

"You're too slow, you need to move faster." Jace snapped.

I resisted the strong urge to roll my eyes at him. Lately, Jace's temper was even shorter than usual, and he was snapping at the littlest things that I was surprised he'd even pay attention to.

We had been in the training room for the past hour and a half, and I wasn't getting any better. Actually, my skills, or lack of, seemed to be getting worse if that was even possible.

And I was pretty sure it wasn't.

"Try again." Jace said, his tone growing weary. "I've got stuff to do."

"Then by all means, please do it." I quipped. "I'm just as happy to sit up in my room all day."

His eyes flashed and his fingers tightened into fists. "Watch it, Fray."

"Why should I?" I hissed. "It's not like you could possibly to anything worse to me than you've already done."

Before I could even blink, Jace was standing right in front of me, his hands grasping my arms right where my bruises had already formed. Great.

"Because I could do a lot worse than hold you captive in my house," he muttered, squeezing tighter.

"Stop, Jace." I knew I was whining, but I couldn't help it. "You're hurting me."

Like someone had shocked him with electricity, Jace stepped back quickly, dropping my arms in the process.

I rubbed the sore spots quickly, determined to not let him know how much that had really stung.

"One more time, Fray." His voice was still remote, but there was a touch of softness that hadn't been there before, and I knew he felt bad.

I swallowed, knowing it was best not to argue. I didn't want a repeat of what had just happened.

Just like Jace had taught me, I quickly lifted up my leg and sliced it through the air, moving it so blindly fast that it was nearly impossible to see. Then I attacked.

This time, Jace had the smallest impeccable smiles on his face as he watched me. "Good. That's better."

I wiped the perspiration from my forehead. "Thanks."

Almost like he was fighting some kind of internal battle with himself, Jace ran a hand over his face and groaned. "And I guess you can be done for today."

I flashed him a quick grin. "Awesome."

. . .

Tessa was in the library when I entered.

"Did he wear you out again?" She asked, flipping through _A Tale of Two Cities,_ a book that was practically ancient.

I sat down wearily at one of the tables. "Always."

She grinned. "You'll get used to it, Clary. Don't worry."

I managed a small smile. "Eventually, sure."

She shook her head, closing the book. "He's not a bad person. Sure, he has a terrible temper, but when he really cares, you know."

"Yeah, maybe." I mumbled. "But I don't want him to care about me. I just want to go home."

Closing her book, Tessa walked over to me. "I know what it feels like. You think that you need to be strong all of the time, Clary. But you don't. It's okay to be someone other than the person that they think you are. Give them a scare every once in a while, yeah?"

I nodded. "Maybe. But what does that have to do with Jace?"

She shrugged. "I felt like that when I first met Will. The Herondales can be a little. . .intimidating at first, but once you get to know them, then you'll be glad you did.

I managed a small smile. "Thanks, Tessa."

Swinging her legs, she grinned. "No problem. Oh, and if you see Will, don't tell him where I am."

My eyebrows knotted together. "Why not?"

She sighed. "Because apparently he thinks that he needs to be by my side day and night when I'm pregnant. And I love him and all, but honestly-"

"Tessa!" I said, rather loudly. "You're going to have a baby?!"

She nodded, pushing some of her hair behind her ear. "Mm hm."

"That's great!"

Tessa giggled. "Thanks, Clary. But please don't tell anyone else. Will wants it to be a surprise."

I grinned. "No problem."

She returned the expression. "Awesome."

. . .

 _The tall, green grasses of the meadow swayed from side to side in the easy summer breeze. I recognized the field as the one just outside of the village that I used to live in, though I hadn't been back there in ages._

 _Jon was running ahead of me, his blonde hair flashing in the sunlight. Every now and then he'd look back at me, a devilish grin on his face._

 _"Jon!" I giggled, following after my brother. "Wait up!"_

 _He laughed. "See if you can keep up!"_

 _Even though I was only six and small for my age, I somehow managed to bound up to him. "Got you!"_

 _Jon looked at me, stopping his movements altogether. "You win, Clary." He spread his arms, and suddenly the sunshine was gone and the grass turned brown. He got older before my eyes, and without looking, I knew that I did too._

 _"Now," he continued, his voice deeper and more masculine. "What do you get as a reward?"_

 _My dream self was still partially frozen with shock, but somehow I managed to move fast, sprinting through the trees that had suddenly sprung up from the ground. My heart was racing a million miles a minute, and the only sound I could hear was the roaring of blood that echoed in my ears._

 _Suddenly, someone else was about thirty feet ahead of me, and it only took a few seconds for me to register who it was._

 _Sebastian._

 _I skidded to a stop, but he was closer now. No less than five feet away, maybe even closer._

 _Whipping around, I saw Jon coming at me from the same direction._

 _I was trapped._

 _"You know," Jon drawled. "I've been waiting to do this for the longest time."_

 _And then, with a nod towards Sebastian, the boy sprung forward, his expression sick, murderous and gleeful at the same time._

 _I screamed._

 _. . ._

"Clary, _Clary,"_ someone was saying. "Stop that, you're safe now. It was all a dream. . .none of it was real."

I opened my eyes, and stared into gold.

Never in my entire life did I ever think I'd be so happy to see Jace Herondale's eyes looming over me, his brows furrowed in mild concern.

All rationality flying from my mind, I threw myself at him.

He let out a soft 'oomph,' flying back onto the bed with me on top of him, my arms wrapped around his neck so tightly that it was boarder-line strangulation.

My breath was coming out in pathetic hiccups that I seemed to have no control over, and Jace's strong arms were loosely looped around my back. His heartbeat was slow and steady underneath my own, the feel of it soothing me.

"Whoa," Jace said, a little humor creeping into his voice. "I'm flattered, Fray. Now I know that I'm not your last resort in times of trouble."

I didn't reply.

"Hey," he continued, his voice growing softer. "What scared you so badly? You don't usually get shaken up so easily."

I shrugged, detaching myself from him. "Bad dream." I croaked. "Worse than the other ones."

Jace sighed, running a hand through his rumpled hair. "Hm. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe here."

I tugged my knees up to my chest. "I guess. I just wish I could see my home, just one last time."

Jace sighed. "Well, not so soon. Seb's still hanging around there, and I don't think it would be a good idea for him to see you again so soon. Plus, I don't think it'd be a good idea for you either.

Despite myself, I frowned. "I can make my own decisions, Jace."

His lips twitched. "Maybe. But I'm going to be making this one for you. Get some sleep, alright? We've got some tough stuff to do tomorrow." Jace wrinkled his nose. "Or, later today."

"Fine." I said, crawling back into my bed and pulling the covers up. "Good night."

"Night, Clary."

But of course, sleep never comes easily.

I tossed and turned for a few more minutes before I gave up, throwing the blankets back and standing up.

Cool moonlight spilled into my room, giving everything an eerie shadow. I pulled one of the thinner blankets from the closet and walked over to the window seat.

I leaned my head up against the glass and closed my eyes.

I didn't sleep until the sun rose.

 **Hello again!**

 **So I survived through my midterms and stuff. . .whew, I hate studying.**

 **Sunshinekacy, do you even have to ask? Of COURSE this is going to be a Clace story! I just hope I can get the romance thingy right.**

 **CristaMitchels, I'm glad you're liking it so far! I do what I can with the chapters, and I hope this one was long enough for you. I will try to get them longer, though!**

 **Thanks to everyone for your awesome reviews, they make my day!**

 **-Sara**


	9. Chapter 9

When I woke up the next morning, I knew something was wrong right away. Maybe it was instinctive, or maybe I just should have expected it.

Either way, my stomach was in a huge knot that refused to come undone.

Throwing back the blanket and stretching out my sore limbs, I tip toed over to my door and slowly opened it.

Voices could be heard from downstairs, their words rushed and quiet. I swallowed.

"-disappeared." One of them said.

"-happens sometimes-" Another continued. "You know how he is."

My eyebrows knotted together. Were they talking about Jace?

Unknowingly, my arm brushed against a flower vase, causing it to tip over, falling to the ground with a loud crash. Everyone stopped and turned to look at me.

Everyone, being; Will, Tessa, Isabelle, Simon, a girl who looked a lot like Will, another boy that was wearing too much glitter, and the final one who looked like he could be twins with the first.

Isabelle was the first one to move. "Well, I think we should tell her." She said, her voice bordering on annoyance. "Clary is living in his house, after all."

Will dropped his head into his hands. "I'm going to kill him when we find him."

"Um," I started, trying to remind them that I was standing right there. "Where's Jace?"

Will's twin snorted. "That's what we're wondering."

The sparkly man stepped forwards. "Alec, I don't think-"

He shrugged off the man's touch. "No. She's not a child. Jace is gone. Zap. Vanished into thin air. He could be alive and well, or dead as a door nail. He's a pain in the ass, but he's _my_ pain in the ass, and if he wandered off because of you. . ." Alec made a gesture that was probably illegal in some parts of the world. "Then say your good byes now."

I blinked, too startled to come up with a clever retort.

"Alec," Will's tone was warning. "You know Jace gets like this sometimes. Lay off a little. It's not her fault."

Alec looked like he wanted to rip my head off if it was my fault or not. "We don't know that for sure."

"Magnus," Will said, like he was making it clear that somebody needed to get Alec under control.

Magnus, who I learned was the man with the glitter, wrapped his hands around Alec's biceps and practically dragged him out of the room.

Will looked near exasperated. "Well, that was fun. Sorry about that, Clary."

I shrugged. "I've been called worse. So. . .does Jace pull stuff like this often?"

He sighed. "Well. . .sometimes. But he's unpredictable, and we really thought that he wouldn't be going anywhere for awhile. Especially after you came along."

"Oh." I sunk down into one of the nearest chairs. "So is he going to be okay?"

Will sighed, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "I don't know."

An awkward silence enthused.

"So what should I do?" I asked eventually. "Just stay here?"

Tessa stepped forward when Will dropped his head into his hands, muttering curses under his breath. "Isabelle and Simon have already volunteered to stay here with you."

I frowned. I didn't really like the idea of being babysat, but I had a feeling that whatever deal Jace had going on was going to be upheld, whether he was here or not.

So much for my master plan of escape.

. . .

Time seemed to go by in slow motion.

I mean, I loved hanging out with Izzy and Simon, both of whom were much more relaxed than Jace had ever been. Around me, anyways. I devoted a lot of my time to watching old episodes of something called Anime with Simon, and playing his videogames. Isabelle flitted throughout the house, not really spending too much time in any one room. I knew she was nervous about Jace. They all seemed to be.

The girl who had been in the kitchen with us that day was Will's sister, Cecily. She made herself known around the house and to me, and I decided that I liked her. She had a bubbly atmosphere about her, almost childlike. But something told me that she could be quick and frightening when the need presented itself. But she seemed to like hanging out with Isabelle, and that was fine by me.

Will nearly turned into a whole different person, and I had been hoping that Jace's disappearance had been upsetting Alec, and that was why he was so bitter. Or maybe he just had a stick up his ass. Either way, we weren't going to be becoming BFFs anytime soon.

The house seemed so. . .silent. No one dared to speak above whispers, and I didn't bother asking why. It was like someone had died or something.

I wondered where Jace had wandered off to. Sure, he could be a jerk at times, but the night before he disappeared, he'd been actually kind of. . .sweet. And I was my usual crabby self. But still, it hadn't meant that I'd wanted him to go gallivanting off into the forest, never to be seen again.

And as time went by, I really did start to question if he was ever coming back.

. . .

"It won't be much longer now." He said, his thin face stretching out into something that almost resembled a grin. "Once she actually starts listening to him, then we'll have it easy from there."

The other man chuckled, patting the former on the back. "Good. But we need to find that Jonathan Herondale. He's going to break the deal that we made, and you know that I won't be too happy if he does."

The first man nodded. "Indeed. It seems that he, along with the rest of his abnormally large family, are going to cause some. . .trouble for us and our plan. But we need her," he suddenly snarled, banging his hand down on the desk. "Only she can do it."

"Patience," he said, warning seeping into his tone. "We'll just have to hope that they don't start to form any attachments to each other. Otherwise, he'll never hand her over. At least, not willingly."

"You're right," said the younger one, his tone slipping back into normalcy. "I guess we'll just have to wait."

 **AHH!**

 **Some INTENSE stuff going on in this chapter, guys. INTENSE! I know this chapter was a little shorter than what I usually do, but I'll try and work on that for next time.**

 **Anyways, to that awesome guest out there; thanks so much! I'm glad you're liking the story so far and that you like the writing style. More to come! :)**

 **AlesiaJ89, hang in there girlfriend! Yes, Clary's being a bitch to Jace and she wasn't to Sebastian, but even though she won't admit it, she's not as afraid of Jace and she has a reason to outright hate him. Since she was with Sebastian to protect her mother, she was always justifying that relationship in her mind, and kept quiet. Hoped that cleared things up a little!**

 **Thank you so much to all of the reviews, favorites and follows! I'm glad you guys are staying with me, because I can get a little crazy sometimes. ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

Jace turned up about a week later.

I had figured that something like this was going to happen, but what I didn't expect was for him to come through the door being half dragged half carried by Alec and Will, both of whom had a strange mixture of aggravation and relief plastered across their faces.

Jace's black clothes were darker in some spots, and his lip was split.

"We found him in the woods," Will grunted as he shifted his shoulder, causing Jase to roll his head back and groan. Will flinched. "We've got to get him upstairs."

Not knowing what the latter was, I nodded and followed them upstairs. Alec had given me the evil eye a few moments before, so I was sure to stay at least six feet behind them.

I watched as Jace's feet knocked against the stairs, causing clumps of mud to fall off of his boots. Knowing how much he loved his precious carpets, I figured he was going to throw a hissy fit when he woke up. Will had made it adamantly clear to me that Jace hated to have things out of order, and that everything had a designated place in the house and that if I messed anything up. . .well, he didn't go there.

Once they finally reached Jace's bedroom, Will and Alec dropped him on the bed. Will turned to me and flashed me an exhausted, apologetic half smile. "Sorry, Clary. But I don't think Jace would want you to see him without his pants on."

My cheeks flamed as he closed the door.

I sat out in the hallway for what seemed like forever, but was probably no longer than ten minutes. Will came out looked haggard, but Alec didn't follow.

"We need a Silent Brother," he said, his voice panicked.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Why? What's wrong?"

Will ignored me and raced down the hallway, muttering something under his breath over and over that I didn't quite catch.

I sat back against the wall, not wanting to go into Jace's room at the moment because Alec was in there and I was pretty sure that he wasn't going to be afraid to bite my head off if I looked at him in the wrong way.

Slowly, I got up and walked down to where my mother's room resided. A pang of guilt flashed through me as I realized that I hadn't really talked to her in the past couple of days.

I raised my fist and knocked softly.

"Come in," she said, her voice ringing clearly through the door.

I swallowed and turned the knob.

As usual, her room was immaculately neat and not a thing was out of place. The covers were pulled so tightly over the mattress that I could have bounced a quarter off of them, and a stack of books sat on the nightstand.

It was a whole lot neater than my room.

My mother herself was sitting by the windowsill, her gaze off and dreamy as she stared off into some unknown place in the distance. As per usual, her dark red curls were tied up into a knot at the back of her head, a few stray strands slipping out and framing her delicate, pale face.

I tugged on the hem of my boring black T-shirt as I walked over to where she sat, crossing my legs on the floor in front of her.

Instead of turning to look at me, her gaze remained fixed on something outside of the window. "It's happening," she murmured softly, her voice sending chills down my spine. I frowned.

"Mom?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

When she looked at me, her eyes were vacant. "Something that was predicted a long, long time ago."

I reached out and touched her arm, and just like that, she seemed to have snapped out of it.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice back to normal once again. "Is that nice young boy back yet?"

"Um. . .Jace?"

She nodded. "Yes, that's what his name was. Did they find him? He's been coming in to see me everyday, he brought me those books and everything else. . ." she trailed off. "Never mind."

"Yeah, they just brought him in," I said, feeling my confusion grow. "What?-"

"Go. Go and see him, Clary. If everything's going to work out just like it should, than the two of you should be friends. Alright?"

Seriously confused by this point, I still nodded and kissed her cheek. "Okay, mom. I'll try and see him if I can."

Relaxing back into her chair, my mother closed her eyes. "Good."

. . .

I didn't get in to see Jace until later that evening.

Will was about ready to collapse with exhaustion once he left, and Tessa was the only one who could persuade him to leave. Even though he didn't seem all that eager to leave Jace, I could still tell that he wanted to go home.

Alec was a little more difficult, but with some sweet talking from Magnus, he was out of the house before sundown.

And now it was just me and him.

I hadn't been in Jace's room all day, and if we were being honest here, I at least wanted to make sure that he was okay.

Slowly and carefully, I pushed open the door and walked inside.

His room was warmly lit by a lamp that sat by the bed, and Jace himself was flipping through a book, looking as weak as I'd ever seen him; blonde hair sticking up in ten wrong directions, face pale and eyes drooping.

I crept across the room, but apparently I wasn't as ninja-like as I thought.

"Give me a little more credit than that, Fray."

A sharp contrast to his appearance, Jace's voice was still just as snarky and sarcastic as I remembered. I looked up sheepishly.

He put the book down and nodded towards the door. "I heard you come in," he said with a yawn, running his fingers through his already disheveled hair. "You didn't really think that you'd be able to sneak past me, did you?"

I scowled. "Maybe I did."

"Mm, good luck with that." Jace said, starting to throw back the covers and get up. He sat on the edge of the bed for a minute, taking a deep breath and squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to get himself up into a standing position.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

"Um," I spoke up. "Will told me-"

"Yeah, yeah," Jace waved his hand at me. "He says a lot of things, but that doesn't mean that he's suddenly my boss just because I left for a few days. I'm eighteen years old. I can do what I want."

I sat down on the floor Indian style, watching as he tried to get up again. I guess needing help wasn't in Jace's range of many abilities.

"Jace?"

"What?" He snapped.

"I could help you, if you really wanted-"

He shot me an irritated look. "I don't need your help, alright?"

Feeling my own stubbornness kick back in, I folded my arms across my chest. "Clearly you need someone's help. And I'm the only person available. Where are you trying to go anyways?"

He jerked his thumb behind him. "Bathroom. And even if I did need your help, I think I'd fall over on top of you. You're too small, Fray."

I felt my cheeks heat up. "I am not! You. . .you're gigantic! That's what the problem here is!"

Jace was starting to look highly amused by this point. "Fine. Get over here, then."

Without even thinking about it really, I stood up and crossed the room to Jace, who was still smirking like he knew that I was fighting a losing battle. Maybe I was.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I slowly began to lift him up until he was standing next to me.

By this point I was already starting to grow tired, but I wasn't going to give in that easily. If I gave in, then Jace won and he'd never let me forget it.

We walked across the room together, almost all of Jace's weight was being placed on my right arm, which was starting to grow more and more numb as the seconds ticked by.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally was able to get Jace into the bathroom, and then I collapsed against the wall, wiping the back of my hand across my forehead. How was I supposed to do that again?

Jace must have been feeling sympathetic, or maybe he was trying to be annoying. Either way, he took nearly ten minutes in the bathroom and I was starting to consider going back to my room and leaving him to fend for himself.

Almost as if he was reading my thoughts, Jace opened the door and wrapped his arm around my shoulders again.

"Round two," he chuckled softly, his warm breath stirring the hairs on my head.

"No kidding," I panted.

Thankfully, we made it back to the bed unscathed about five minutes later, and I was just about ready to pass out.

I was just about to turn around and walk out the door when Jace called after me.

"Hey, Clary?"

I resisted the urge to groan. "Yeah, Jace?"

He flashed me breathtaking crooked smile that I bet had millions of girls falling at his feet. "Thanks."

I nodded, allowing the corner of my lip to curl up just a little. Maybe this was what my mom had meant. "No problem."


	11. Chapter 11

_He was sure that this was what death felt like._

 _His head was searing with pain, and he squeezed his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to make it all stop. Was it possible to be dying and not even be sure it was happening? Maybe he'd fallen asleep or unconscious. Maybe he had-_

 _Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed through his skull, and he saw a flash of what once was. Of a ever green field with tall stalks of grass and the wide open blue sky._

 _He hadn't seen the sky in years._

 _But the most prominent memory of all of them was of a little girl running through the field, her green eyes wide and glowing as she called out to him, her expression gleeful._

 _Just as he was about to reach for her, the vision changed into something different, something much more disturbing._

 _The same girl sat somewhere in the dark, her face one of complete terror and her hair matted and dirty as it hung in limp strands around her pale, narrow face._

 _She was in trouble._

 _. . ._

Jace had since made the decision that being stuck in his room all day wasn't the worst thing in the entire world.

Every though he didn't say it straight to my face, I could tell that he really did enjoy ordering me around for the next week and a half. And it wasn't like I could say no to him either, because he'd just call Will to complain.

So yeah, he really was a pain in the backside.

Not to mention the fact that Jace liked to lounge around in nothing but his sweatpants, which made me unintentionally blush like crazy and he teased me for it. It was a little irritating that he couldn't be, like, a heinous beast under his clothes. No, his body was just as attractive as his face.

Sometimes I really did hate the guy.

"Claaary," he called, all sing-songy down the hallway, and I resisted the urge to go in there and smack him. "I need you to get something for meeee."

Grounding my teeth together, I stood up and slammed the book down that I was reading and charged out into the hallway, down to Jace's room.

He was lying down on his bed, his hands behind his head as he smirked at me, looking almost ridiculously attractive as he lay there. It really wasn't right that the most ill-behaved people in the world sometimes just happened to have the best faces. I could see the mischief brewing in his eyes from across the room. Definitely not a good sign.

"You rang?" I spat out, tapping my foot impatiently on the floor.

"I did, actually." Jace drawled, stretching his up and over his head. "Will you go and get something for me? I'm _starving."_

Clenching my hands into fists at my sides, I suddenly wished for a crowbar. "What would you like?"

Jace thought about it for a moment. "A granola bar," he said finally. "Now snap to it."

"That's it?" I demanded, raising an eyebrow. "This better not be another game of yours, Herondale."

"That's it for now." He corrected me, the devious little look never leaving his eyes. "I'll be sure to get right back to you the very second that I require anything else so that you can stop worrying so much about me."

Before my great temptation to wring his neck had me launching across the room, I backed out and closed the door behind me before I went down into the kitchen and grabbed the whole box of granola bars, trudged back up the stairs, and thrust them into Jace's room.

Not even a freaking thank you.

So much for that.

. . .

"He's giving you a hard time, isn't he?" Tessa asked as she drew some of her long, brown hair back into a ponytail.

She, Isabelle and I were currently situated in Jace's kitchen whilst Alec and Will were upstairs with the prince himself. He had been strangely low-maintenance these few days, and it was beginning to shake me up a little bit.

Tessa and Isabelle, who I really was starting to like, had showed up with the boys and offered to keep me company for the afternoon. I had gladly obliged.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Like he's ever anything else. Don't get me wrong or anything, I love Jace like he's my own brother, but I know how much of a handful he can be. Will'll go up there and roughen him up for you one way or another. Guaranteed."

I couldn't help but smile a little at that. "Thanks, Isabelle. But I think I can take care of him myself."

She shrugged and sat back. "Suit yourself."

We talked for awhile about everything and nothing, and I didn't realize how much I'd really missed having other girls around to talk to. It made me miss Aline and my old home even more, causing that clenching in my stomach that seemed as if it was never going to go away. But I was starting to really like both Tessa and Izzy, since Tessa was the voice of reason, while Isabelle seemed to attack problems more head on and much, much more violently. Maybe this place wasn't terrible; I mean, my mom and I finally had more than enough to eat, and we could keep eating until our stomachs seemed like they were going to burst at the very seams. I slept in a warm, soft bed at night, something that couldn't be conjured up out of leaves and beds of moss. The people here really were some of the nicest that I had ever met, despite all of the stuff that was said about them on TV, which made them out to be some kind of villains. Jace was still a work in progress, though. Or maybe I was never going to like him all that much.

I could live with that.

"Hm," Isabelle said suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. She flicked a strand of my bright red hair. "Your hair is super long, Clary, and I know this braid that would look so awesome with it. Can I try it?"

I hesitated for a second. My hair was the equivalent of a mini jungle, all with different sized and shaped curls that flew out into some kind of Afro around my head. Or at least that was how it looked to me. I was sure I looked like the equivalent of some kind of cave women, seeing how I never bothered to brush it.

I shrugged. "You can try."

She grinned. "Excellent."

. . .

As it turned out, Isabelle really did enjoy pulling on the ends of my hair.

I screwed my mouth shut and closed my eyes, gritting my teeth to keep myself from uttering any kinds of words of pain, because I was sure that I was going to need some kind of neck brace when this was all said and done with.

It didn't help the fact that my hair already had so many knots and tangles in it that you could barely tell one strand from the next, and I was sure that this was going to make me look more like a five year old than I already did.

I mean, let's face it here; I was sixteen going on seventeen with a flat chest, hair the size of Texas, and a face and body full of freckles, which I really hated. And I didn't weigh more than a sack of flour, which only seemed to add to my childlike appearance.

Biting my lip as Isabelle finally finished off the last few strands, I opened my eyes to see Tessa giving me a reassuring smile as Isabelle tied it off with a hair tie.

"It really does look great, Clary."

Isabelle came around to survey her work, her expression satisfied. "Here, take a look." She offered, reaching into her over sized purse and plucking out a hand mirror. "I've come prepared."

Hesitantly, I took the mirror from her hand and glanced at my reflection.

My normally very red and very unruly curls were pulled back, exposing my thin, pale face that was sprinkled with freckles. Somehow, my green eyes looked larger, and well, more prominent. The braid swung down low, just managing to skim the small of my back.

I decided that I liked it.

I grinned, handing Isabelle back the mirror. "Thanks, Isabelle."

She grinned back, tossing her long, silky black hair over one shoulder. "No problem."

Tessa sat back and closed her eyes, her expression tired. Isabelle glanced over at her.

"Tired, Tess?" She asked casually. "When's that baby coming?"

Tessa opened one eye. "Not for another seven months, Izzy. And if my doofus finds out that I told you two, he'll be sorely tempered."

Isabelle scoffed. "Highly debatable. Will would do anything for you, I doubt he cares all that much."

Tessa yawned. "You'd be surprised."

Tessa and Isabelle stayed around for what seemed like no longer than five minutes, but really what turned out to be nearly a couple of hours. Will and Alec were preoccupied with Jace, who had finally decided to give me a break for the day. It was a blessing from above. In that span of time, I learned more information about Tessa and Isabelle than what was probably good for me.

But overall, I had the best time that I hadn't had in what seemed like forever. Back in my small village, actually having some kind of luck with people who were willing to carry on a civilized conversation with you was a rare find, since everybody was always wound up so tightly all of the time, always on the run and always looking out to prevent a fight. Sebastian hadn't helped that matter at all. If anything, he'd just set everyone on edge with his snide sense of humor and dark expressions. Not to mention the way he'd just disappear with me into the woods for hours at a time, never bothering to come back unless he thought to remember me somewhere in the back of his mind, which didn't happen as often as it should have.

I shuddered, pushing the awful memories away. Memories of a dark forest and strange sounds, feet that weren't mine snapping on twigs, coming closer and closer until-

"Well," Isabelle said, standing up and yawning. "I think it's time for me to get going. This has been fun, you guys." She said with a grin. "We should do it again sometime in the near future." She turned to Tessa. "You coming or waiting for Will?"

"I think I'll stay here with Clary for just a little while longer, if that's alright." Tessa said with a tentative smile. "It was nice talking to you, Isabelle."

Isabelle waved and said the last of her goodbyes before she started to walk away, shutting the door behind her.

After Isabelle had left, Tessa turned to me.

"You know," she began, her voice soft, gentle. "Jace mentioned that he put you through some pretty terrible scenarios. I noticed the look on your face." She continued, her gaze sympathetic. "And I understand."

I toyed with the end of my braid. "Sometimes, he did." I muttered. "But. . .it wasn't like he did anything that could be considered outright torture, you know? It was weird, the mind games he knew how to play. His favorite one seemed to be taking me deep into the forest while I'd be wearing a blindfold and then just. . .taking off, leaving me there. And he told me not to move, not until he got back. He always threatened to do something terrible if I went against him, not that I ever dared to. He was protecting the whole town, and if he had the power to do that, than I'd allow him to do anything that he wanted to do with me. I mean, for the sake of all of those people? And he was sick and twisted, being around him put my stomach into a million different knots, and not in a good way. And then Jace showed up that one day, claiming that I was going to have to come along with him, no questions asked. And yeah, he made me nervous. He's one of the most powerful Shadowhunters in the world, but something about him just pushed me to trust him, you know what I mean?"

Tessa pursed her lips, considering what I had just said. "I get it. And Clary, I don't think it really mattered what you did, Sebastian was going to do whatever he wanted to. Will hasn't ever let me get within ten feet of the guy, but from what I've seen, he doesn't seem to have a problem destroying others to get what he wants. And I know that Jace has a dark side, but when it really comes down to it, he would never intentionally hurt anyone, especially not you."

Her gray eyes were steady as they met my own, and I knew in that moment that she meant what she was saying, even if I couldn't see it myself. Tessa knew, and she understood.

In that moment, Will and Alec walked down the stairs, the former giving me a tired nod and a smile before he put his arm around Tessa's waist. She waved goodbye, and they walked out the door. Alec didn't say anything, just shot me a dirty look before he followed suit behind Tessa and Will.

I sighed, about to rest my eyes for a few minutes when a familiar shout echoed down the stairway.

"Oh, Claaary."

Groaning, I got up and made my way towards the stairs.

. . .

Jace was sitting in his bedroom, propped up on about five or six pillows when I walked into the bedroom.

"What now?" I demanded.

He shrugged, glancing over at me and flashing me a perfectly white grin. "Just wanted to double check that you were still awake."

I rubbed the back of my hand across my eyes. "Well, I'm about to go to sleep, so if you need anything else in your weakened condition, let me know now because I am not about to get up in the middle of the night for you, not that I could anyways since you have those stupid automatic door lock thingys."

Jace smirked. "All is well here. Goodnight, Fray."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't wake me up tonight, Herondale."

I turned around, about to exit the room when Jace called after me.

"Oh, and Fray?"

I gritted my teeth, slowly turning back around. "Yes?"

Jace's expression was dead serious, except for the small smile that was playing around the corners of his lips. "You should really wear your hair back more often. I like it better that way."

Fighting the traitor blush that was threatening to rise to the surface, I just nodded and hurried out the door, shutting it tightly behind me.

And my heart was beating so fast that I feared Jace himself could hear it.

 **Whew! 2,579 words, guys! Definitely the longest one yet!**

 **Catastrophicmind, I'm glad you found this story again and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!** **Sirfan, I hope this one lived up to your expectations. :)**

 **I'M ON MIDWINTER BREAK! That means sleeping in and reading books until four o'clock in the morning! My new/old favorite is called 'the Summer I Turned Pretty,' even if the girl is a little annoying. Such a sweet book series that always makes my sappy heart melt, and everyone out there needs to READ it and LOVE it.**

 **Thanks for all of your reads, reviews, favorites and follow! We're almost up to 10,000 views already! You guys rock!**


	12. Chapter 12

Once Jace was back up on his feet once again, he didn't waste a second of his time; we got right back into the rigorous training. Maybe it was my imagination or something, but this time he seemed to want to take it slower. But if it was for him or for me, I had no idea.

I watched him, beginning to feel the oh-so familiar boredom set in as he paced the length of the room. . .back and forth. . .back and forth. . .back and forth over and over again, his blonde hair tousled in that way that made me wonder if he really did spend twenty minutes on it every morning, or if it just naturally fell that way. His amber eyes already had deep, dark circles ringing their undersides, and he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. The stance he held told me that he was anything but relaxed.

"New approach," he muttered under his breath, his words becoming nearly impossible to catch. "We need to try something different this time around. . .maybe something that involves more core training, or-"

"Jace," I snapped, finally beginning to feel the very last of my patience fly overboard. "We've been sitting in here for a half hour. Can I leave now or what?"

Instead of narrowing his eyes like I would have expected, Jace released a sigh that seemed like he'd been holding it in for a long, long time. Sitting down on the floor Indian-style, he dropped his head into his hands, fisting his hair.

"I know I'm wasting your time, Fray. But the press has really been on my ass lately, and I wish that they'd just leave me alone or something. You know what I mean? That's one of the main reasons why I never leave the house, and I don't want them asking me any more dumb questions about what happened so many years ago. Why should they care anyways?"

By this point, I had a feeling that Jace was more talking out loud to himself than he was to me, and that he probably didn't really want me to hear any of what had just been said.

So I pretended like nothing had ever been said.

"Okay, so maybe we should start with core training," I suggested, hoping that was the right choice. I hadn't ever done any core training before, whatever that was supposed to be. Jace just lifted his head up from his hands and stared at me, his eyes slitted. "Or. . .maybe not?"

He shook his head, the smirk that was starting to become one of his most familiar facial expressions making yet another reappearance. "Yeah, maybe we should."

. . .

It took me a grand total of 26.5 seconds to realize that my great idea to core train really wasn't such a great idea. Like at all.

Core training mainly consisted of three things; pain, pain, and more pain. Oh, and don't ever forget Jace yelling things at me from across the room, always and forever pushing and shoving for me to go harder and harder, faster and faster.

We started off with what I thought was going to be simple but actually wasn't; the plank position. The plank was one of the worst things ever to be invented if you asked me. I held my position with my elbows centered at my chest; the only thing that was holding up my body weight was my forearms and the tips of my toes, the latter which were starting to ache. Badly.

I gritted my teeth as I sat there, Jace with his stupid stop-watch held in his hands, his expression twisted into some kind of brutal concentration that he seemed determined to keep. I guess I was supposed to hold this stupid position for one minute, tops, but seeing as how my arms were already turning into large bowls of jelly, I seriously doubted that that was going to happen anytime soon.

"Jace," I gasped, feeling a bead of sweat form a my forehead and slowly begin to work its way down my face. "Can we stop now? I don't think that I really want to do this anymore."

He shook his head, impatiently pushing some of his golden hair from his eyes. "Nope. We've only just gotten started, and I have a whole lot of other exercises for you to partake in for the better part of the morning, maybe even a little into the afternoon if we're lucky."

"Great," I moaned, the nonexistent muscles in my lower arms starting to grow numb.

"Now you can stop, Fray."

Before he even finished getting the words out of his mouth, I had already collapsed onto the matted floor, my breathing rough and ragged as I lay there, wondering how I was ever going to find the strength to move ever again.

Jace squatted down next to me, rolling his eyes. "You'll be fine, Fray. Believe me." He clapped his hands together and rose to his full height. "Okay, now let's try something that's going to be a little easier on you; okay?"

I nodded, pushing myself up into a sitting position. "Fine. What do I have to do?"

Jace blinked, looking surprised that I had actually agreed to do something right away instead of fighting him on it. "Um. . .sit ups, definitely. Just twenty of them for starters."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Wouldn't want me to hurt myself or anything."

He smirked, snapping back to his old self. "You got that right."

I did the twenty sit ups, which didn't turn out to be so bad after all. They probably would have been easier if I hadn't just been holding my body weight on the tips of my toes.

Jace took me through a whole series of exercises and things that I never normally would have found myself doing, but Jace insisted, saying that I couldn't be a Shadowhunter if I didn't work on building up on my muscles so that I actually could fight the right way. And training was outright terrible either. Jace seemed more relaxed than he had been in days, and I decided that I liked this side of him a whole lot better than the jerk that I'd been getting over the past couple of weeks.

His patience level seemed to have shot up, and the normal stuff that he'd be getting pissed at didn't seem to faze him at all. In fact, he was actually semi pleasant to be around when he wasn't making nasty comments or well. . .just being the Jace that I had grown so used to.

About halfway through the morning, Jace decided that we should try some balance techniques too, so we moved to a different part of the training room. Needless to say, it was turning out to be much bigger than I had originally thought it was.

Jace strapped me into a sturdy-looking harness that he explained would keep me from falling, if and when I went down. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as he finished up fastening the rest of it, sending me off to climb up onto the ladder that led to the beam.

Once I got up there, I noticed that it was significantly higher than I had thought it was going to be, and since I wasn't really big on heights, I hung back.

"Come on, Fray." Jace called up to me. "You're not going to fall, and I'll catch you if the harness doesn't. Okay?"

Instead of responding, I bit my lip and closed my eyes.

"Keep your eyes open so you can see where you're going!" Jace bellowed.

This was pretty much how we continued on for the next fifteen minutes, until I grew so tired of it that I turned around to tell him off, but my stupid sneaker slipped on the beam and I went flying, my harness had decided that now would be a good time to fail me.

I went crashing towards the ground, but Jace somehow ended up underneath me, and we both fell into a tangle of limbs onto the thankfully padded floor.

Jace caught me with a slight 'oomph,' and we both tumbled to the floor.

Maybe this shouldn't have been my main focus at the moment, but our face were closer together than they had ever been before. I could see the darkened amber shade of his irises, how one was just flecked a little more darkly than the other, and the light sprinkling of freckles that were hardly noticeable that were splattered across his nose. His mouth was parted slightly, and I could see that one of his top teeth was slightly chipped, an oddly endearing quality.

For some reason, I had those stupid butterflies back in my stomach, and they had come back ten times as worse.

"Lucky for the both of us," Jace began, startling me out of my reverie. "You didn't break me."

I smacked his arm. "Very funny."

"Yes, haha. Can you get off of me now?" Jace whined, wiggling impatiently beneath me.

I sat up and smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles in my clothing.

Jace did the same, and I noticed with slight humor that his hair was flattened on one side like a little kid who had just woken up from a nap. It was some kind of miracle that neither one of us had broken or bruised anything, Jace seemed more irritated than anything else, not that I could blame him. I _was_ pretty clumsy.

"I think," Jace started, running an exasperated hand through his hair, "that we've done enough for today."

I gladly nodded in agreement.

He looked relieved, and then he started to pull his shirt off over his head.

I felt my eyes widen as I looked away, my cheeks flaming bright, bright red. "Um. . .w-what are you doing?"

I could hear the smirky satisfaction in his voice when he replied. "Taking of my shirt. Why? Would you rather do it yourself?"

If it was even possible, my cheeks turned even redder. "Shut up, Jace."

His laugh was almost silent. "Chill. Anyways, I was thinking about training a little bit."

"And you usually do that half _naked?!"_

He snorted. "Of course not. I just wanted to see how you would react. Are you a prude or something?"

By this point, my cheeks were fire-engine red. "Never mind. I'll just leave you to your training." I snapped, before I stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Jace staring after me.

. . .

That night, I didn't get much sleep.

I could lie and tell you that it was because I was thinking too much about my mother, worrying about her, but the real reason had to do with a certain blonde who seemed to be invading my thoughts more and more lately.

I wasn't sure exactly what it was about him, but something about Jace seemed almost. . .sad. Even when he was joking around, something in his eyes told me that he had gone through something that had been haunting him for years. And it wasn't ever going to go away.

I would have asked him about it, but something in me told me that that wasn't such a good idea. Who knew how he was going to react? Maybe he'd totally freak out or just go silent? I didn't know him well enough to say, so I just left it alone.

Strangely, that night was one of the very few ones were nothing went wrong, and I slept all the way through.


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up that next morning with a splitting headache.

I didn't have a very high pain tolerance level to begin with, but this was the kind of headache that radiated through your brain, lightning flashes of pain striking at you when you least expected it.

In short, there was no way I was leaving my bedroom today.

Yanking the covers back up over my head, I readied myself to take a long, long nap. Hopefully my annoying roommate would get the hint and leave me alone.

Unfortunately for all of us, that wasn't the case.

Jace banged on my door ten minutes later, shouting for me to get up, we had a lot of work to do today.

"ARGH!" I yelled back. "My head is killing me! Come back when I don't feel like the walking dead!"

There was perfect silence on Jace's end for a moment before my bedroom door clicked open.

 _And here we go._

His footsteps were surprisingly light on the softly carpeted floors, and I was only aware how near he was when he sat down on the bed next to me; the mattress dipping beneath his weight.

I held my breath.

Jace grabbed the covers and pulled them off of my head, exposing me to the brightness of the day. I squinted, feeling the power of my headache come back in full force. It didn't help that Jace's face was less than a foot from my own.

His golden eyes peered into my green ones, his nose crinkling slightly. "Where does it hurt?" He asked, his voice hushed.

I blinked and touched my temples. "Here," I whispered back.

Jace nodded, giving me a small, teasing smile. "Bad tension headache. Maybe a migraine. Am I working you too hard, Fray?" He asked, his tone playful. Even though his voice was light, I thought I saw a streak of concern flit across his features.

I shrugged. "I guess so."

Jace gave me a small smile. "Don't move. I'll be right back."

"You have nothing to worry about," I mumbled in reply, closing my eyes.

Even though it felt like I had just closed my eyes, Jace was back nearly seconds later, closing the blinds and handing me a hot, wet washcloth. "Try this," he said, keeping his voice low. "It'll help."

I nodded, tilting my head back and laying the washcloth across the top of my head.

The bed creaked again and Jace's footsteps crossed the floor. For a second I thought he was leaving, but then he returned with an armful of books, laying them all out on my bed.

"You know," I began before he could say anything else. "You don't have to do this for me. I know that you've probably got a ton of other stuff to take care of."

Jace shrugged as he rifled through the stack of books. "It can wait."

Even though I didn't want to admit it, those three words were enough to make my heart soar.

. . .

Jace and I spent the rest of the day reading books. Well, he read them and I listened.

Jace did have a good reading voice; deep, rich and smooth. My mom used to read to Jon and I when we were little kids, but we hadn't had a lot of money, so we were limited to reading the same books over and over again. Jace, it seemed, had a never ending supply.

My favorite turned out to be _Narnia; the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ , a novel that was over two hundred years old. It was fascinating to me that someone's works could outlive them, going on and on and never dying out.

When I mentioned my thoughts to Jace, he grew silent for a moment, and I knew he was thinking.

"I guess," he said. "But anyone can make something that lasts; a work of art, a novel, a song, quotes. . .anything. But I think the biggest achievement would have to be getting it to mean something to people, you know? Not just something that they glance at once in their lives and forget about it the next second, but something that's going to stay with them forever. That's the kind of legacy that I admire."

And he was right.

I sighed, leaning back and closing my eyes. "So. . .why are you suddenly acting so nice to me?"

Jace frowned. "I'm always nice, Fray."

"You know what I mean."

He shrugged. "Being so hotheaded all of the time gets tiring," Jace replied, nudging me with his shoulder. "You of all people should know that."

I rolled my eyes, though he couldn't see. "Ha ha."

Jace chuckled and settled back into his position. "So, should we get back to the reading?"

I lifted a shoulder in reply. "Sure. I want to see how this one ends, if you don't mind."

Instead of answering, Jace picked back up with the reading.

. . .

About an hour and a half later, he walked out of her room, closing the door softly behind him.

She had fallen asleep within the next thirty minutes that he'd been reading, but after he'd closed the book, Jace found himself unwilling to move. Not that he could if he wanted to. Clary had unconsciously moved and rested her head on his stomach, leaving him pinned in place.

With any other girl, it would have been too easy to move her head back to where it belonged, but he didn't want to wake her up. Clary was so peaceful when she was asleep, and Jace discovered that he liked the sight. For him, girls always wanted something, whether it was sex, attention, a kiss, something material. . .and it drove him crazy. He'd never been very good at the whole relationship thing, and some of them seemed to have a harder time grasping that than others. But Clary didn't have an expectations or demands. In fact, she seemed to flat out hate him. And maybe in some weird, twisted way, that was exactly what Jace needed; someone who he could be around who didn't expect him to be anything other than an asshole, without any expectations or demands.

It was refreshing.

"Well, well." Came a voice from down the hallway. "Finally got to her too, did you?"

Jace's back stiffened as he turned around, relaxing again when he saw that it was only Will.

His cousin was sitting with his back up against the wall, and Jace briefly wondered how long he'd been standing there for. Will had a triumphant smirk on his face, which meant that he'd seen more than Jace had meant for him too.

Great.

"Mind your own business, William." He said shortly, brushing past his cousin and heading downstairs into the kitchen. Who knew that so much reading out loud could make someone so thirsty?

"You know what I think," Will continued as he stepped into the kitchen. "I think you need to be careful, Jace."

Jace clenched his jaw. "Of what?"

Will watched him closely. "Of caring too much about her, because the second you do, you won't let her go. And they're not going to like that. Not at all."

Jace gripped the counter top tightly in his hands, his knuckles whitening. "I'm not stupid, William. I can take care of myself."

For once, Will's face was anything but humorous. "If you say so."

But the answer sounded doubtful to his own ears.

 **Okay, so I know this one was short, but I'll try and make the next one longer!**

 **For the guest who wanted more Clace, I hope this was enough! I try to drag out the suspense when I write, because I hate those stories where they just meet and end up making out within the first five chapters.**

 **As the camel from the State Farm commercial would say; 'it's HUMPDAY!'**


	14. Chapter 14

Sometimes I seriously consider the factor that the whole world may be conspiring against me.

If Aline were here right now, she'd laugh and say that these things only happen to someone like me, and I was actually starting to agree with her for the first time in my life.

Only me.

It was a week after my migraine, and Jace and I were back on schedule with the training. It wasn't so exhausting anymore, and when I looked in the mirror in the morning, I didn't see myself as some pale, freckled rag doll anymore. Okay, so maybe the freckles and the pale skin were still there, but there was something in my eyes that wasn't there before; determination. To do what, I wasn't exactly sure, but it gave me a reason to keep going.

Jace was still as intolerable as ever, even though I thought he might have had a change of heart after how sweet he'd been last week.

Apparently not.

Instead he just continued to parade around the house like he owned the place, but. . .I guess he did. He was still as annoying and impossible as ever, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was just all an act, or if he really just went around with his chest puffed out and his ego so big that you could hardly squeeze him into a room with another human being, just because that was who he was.

Or maybe it had just all been a dream. Maybe Jace hadn't been in the room with me at all, and I had just been having a really, really strange dream. But then again, I had never read the Chronicles of Narnia, let alone heard of it, so that couldn't have been it.

I had been planning to confront him about it that afternoon during our training sessions, but no such luck.

As I was on my way down the hallway, just around the corner from the training room, the bad thing happened.

There was a roar of thunder, and then, just like that, all of the lights shut off

One thing to clarify here; I was not a nighttime person, now or ever. The power went out frequently at our old house, but there had always been numerous windows around, and I usually took my mom outside so we could just wait it out.

Jace's house, on the other hand, was a huge two-story with hardly any windows and many locked doors that I didn't dare try to get open. And it didn't help anything that it was probably pouring rain outside right now, just as dark out there as it was in here.

I had never been very good on my feet either, and in the dark I was sure to trip over something and cause myself some serious bodily harm.

"Jace?" I called out uncertainly, suddenly not wanting to be alone in a house this big.

Nothing.

Getting on my hands and knees, I started to crawl my way down the hallway, knowing that I would be putting myself in a safer situation if I did.

I hadn't made it twenty feet when I heard a chuckle and then a flashlight shone in the darkness.

"Easy, tiger."

I huffed and got on my feet. "Thanks for the help."

Jace grinned, holding the flashlight under his face so that the sharp planes and angles were illuminated in the sharp light. "So, tell me. Were you lurking in the hallways for fun, or is it just something that you do? Because I'm going to have a hard time getting used to that."

"Well, I couldn't see anything, jerkface." I quipped back, feeling my annoyance spike.

He leaned up against the wall, closing his eyes. "Well, then I guess you wouldn't mind getting used to it again."

And before I could protest, Jace flicked off the flashlight.

When I found him again, he was going to suffer some serious consequences. Maybe even loose a few of his stupidly perfect teeth. I couldn't help but grin to myself in the darkness. Now _that_ would be a good show.

"Still afraid of the dark, Fray?" Jace called out from somewhere in front of me.

"No," I hissed. "I never said that I was afraid of the dark."

"That's funny," he murmured, suddenly a whole lot closer to me then he'd been a few seconds ago. How was that fair? "Because," Jace continued, his voice growing softer and closer still. "I could have sworn your voice shook a little right now."

I scoffed, but even that sounded weak to my own ears. "You are clearly in need of a hearing aid."

"Funny," Jace said, and I jumped when I felt his hand skim my hip, his breath stirring the hair just above my ear.

"I try," I replied, hating how my voice was starting to shake ever so slightly; a detail that I'm sure Jace wasn't going to overlook.

Sure enough, the next words out of his mouth were; "Are you afraid?"

I swallowed as he brushed some hair back from my face. "No."

He sighed, his breath warm on my forehead before he stepped back, and I felt an inexpiable clench of disappointment curl in my stomach.

Now what was that all about?

"Shit," I breathed, a sudden thought coming into my mind. "Where's my mom?!"

"In her room," Jace said, his voice puzzled. "Where else would she be?"

"I need to make sure that she's okay," I said, making a break for the direction I was pretty sure that the stairs were in. "She's going to think that something happened, and that I-"

"Clary," Jace said, somehow finding me in the dark and wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me back. "Calm down. As soon as the power went out, I went to her room and checked on her. She's fine. I even asked her if she wanted me to help her down the stairs so she could come into the kitchen, but she said she was fine where she was."

I scowled in the darkness. "And how do I know that you didn't do something to keep her quiet?"

Jace sighed like I was a child who wouldn't do anything he said. It infuriated me. "Because I haven't hurt her since the two of you got here." He replied, his tone superior.

"Maybe you haven't hurt her," I said, my voice quiet as I pulled out of his arms. "But you've certainly done enough to me."

"Clary-"

On instinct, I spun around and snatched the flashlight out of his hand, not wasting any time as I turned it on and ran forwards.

I clearly wasn't looking where I was going very clearly, because the next thing that I knew, I had run right into a wall.

Classically me.

I gritted my teeth as I touched my fingers to my nose, and my hand came away red. Great.

"Clary?" Jace asked, and I knew that he had knelt down beside me. "You're bleeding."

I shrugged him off. "Thanks for that, genius."

He cleared his throat. "Come on, just tilt your head back. It'll stop the bleeding until we can get a tissue or something on it."

Although I was still mad at him, it was still kind of hard to see where I was going when Jace was holding the flashlight and my head was facing the ceiling. His arm was around my waist as he walked me into the kitchen and sat me down on one of the island chairs. "Just wait right there for a second, I'll be back in ten."

All I had to go off of was the sound of his footsteps padding away.

A few minutes later, the lights came back on, even though they were dim. I looked at Jace in questioning. He offered me a small smile. "Emergency lights. I have them all throughout the house."

"Cool," I muttered. "Do you have a tissue or something?"

He nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. "Here," Jace said, holding out a wad of toilet paper. "This should do the trick for the moment, since nothing's broken."

"And how do you know?"

He rolled his eyes, back to his old self. "Because it would have hurt a lot more."

I held the tissue to my nose. "Can't you just put a rune on me and make it all better Mr. Herondale?"

His jaw tightened and an unreadable emotion passed across his face. "No," his voice was rough. "You're not ready to get the runes yet."

"But-"

"I said no." Jace said shortly, his tone final. "Just hold the tissue there and stop being a child about it. You'll be fine in ten minutes."

Only because I sensed that I had broached a sensitive topic, I remained quiet.

. . .

It thunder stormed for the rest of the afternoon.

I didn't mind it much, since I had always loved storms; it meant staying inside with a sketchpad and drawing the day away. My fingers ached as I thought of my old pad of paper and pencil back at home. I hadn't drawn since I got here.

"Jace?" I called, timidly. We hadn't spoken for the past hour. "Do you have any paper and maybe a pencil or something?"

He glanced up from whatever he was looking at. "Sure, in the desk over there, I have a whole stack of paper and drawing stuff. Go crazy."

"Thanks," I mumbled as I stood up from my place on the window seat and walked over to the desk that he had indicated, rifling through the drawers. In the first one that I pulled open, there sat a picture of a girl.

She was missing her two front teeth and she was grinning as she waved to the camera. The picture was old and faded, but her eyes looked light and her hair was a dark smudge against the backdrop of a sunny afternoon. Jace was crouched down next to her, probably no older than fifteen or sixteen years old, trying to look serious, but I could see how the corners of his lips were threatening to turn up.

He looked happy.

Quickly, before I could be found out, I shut the drawer and opened another, taking a stack of paper and a pencil.

"Find it?" Jace asked as I sat back down. I nodded.

"Yeah," I replied. "Thanks."

 **Hello again!**

 **Things are starting to HAPPEN and I hope you guys are as excited as I am!**

 **I was going to wait to publish this one for a little while, but I had to put this one in there before I forgot or something.**

 **Herondalegraystairs1234; Can I just say that I love your enthusiasm? You basically summed up my feelings for all of my favorite books in one review. I'm so happy that your enjoying the story and that you liked the last chapter so much!**

 **To the guest who left me the super long review; allow me to just answer some of your questions. . .**

 **1\. I know it's hard to believe, and it makes me sick, but some guys can do this to girls and get away with it. It's just the world that we live in today, sadly enough.**

 **2\. It's clearly a futuristic society, but I'd say it takes place around the year 2100, a hundred years into the future.**

 **3\. I love Alec Lightwood just as much as the next fangirl, but no, he doesn't hate Clary for any real reason. Even if he does have Magnus, I guess you could say that he's still protective of Jace and doesn't want him to get hurt, that's all. :)**

 **Thanks so much for the reviews, follows and favorites. I never thought that this book would get so much love.**


	15. Chapter 15

Once I had gotten my hands on that pencil and paper, it was like I couldn't stop.

My pencil flew all over the page, outlining, sketching, shading. Nothing had ever felt so good. I guess drawing was one of those things that I didn't even think that I missed all that much, but once I got a taste of it again, it was pretty much my world for the moment.

I never had to think about what I was going to draw. Usually the ideas just came to me as I was working, and it wasn't until I pulled my pencil away that I realized what I had been working on.

And this time was like all of the others, except when I looked down at it, I was very nearly horrified into shock.

Jace's face looked back up at me, but he wasn't smiling. His mouth was turned down at the corners, and he had a faraway look in his eyes like he was remembering something from a long, long time ago. Like in real life, his hair was still perfectly tousled, but I had made the shadows underneath his cheekbones much more prominent, giving him a brooding, tortured kind of look.

I was sorely tempted to crumple the piece up into a ball and toss it into the corner of my room, but then I couldn't help but hesitate. It was, after all, one of the best things that I had ever drawn, not that I could show it to anyone without keeping my dignity fully intact.

With a sigh, I folded it down the middle and stuck it in the top drawer of my nightstand. No one was ever in here but me anyways.

Jace and I hadn't been talking that much since the power outage a few days ago. He mostly kept out of my way and I kept out of his, but for an entirely different reason.

Questions were floating through my mind, but this one seemed to be the biggest one of all;

Who was that little girl in the picture, and what had happened to her?

. . .

I didn't get much sleep that night, and I headed down the stairs early that next morning.

Jace was sitting at the kitchen island, looking more drained than I'd ever seen him. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of black sweatpants and there were darker shadows under his eyes. His head was rested between his palms on the sides of his head, and his attention was solely focused on the picture in front of him.

"Hey,"

Instead of jumping like a normal person would have, Jace just nodded in acknowledgement, folding the picture over and sticking it into one of his pockets. He stretched his arms over his head, and I noticed a black marking snaking up his side.

Without thinking, I pointed to it. "Is that a rune?"

He looked down. "Uh, no."

"Oh."

Jace cleared his throat. "It's Latin, actually. _Vix aliqui sunt semper." (I used Google Translate, it's SUPPOSED to mean; 'some scars are forever.'_

"No idea what that means."

He shrugged, turning to the fridge. "I got it a few years ago."

Jace didn't elaborate as he rummaged through the fridge, the muscles in his back moving.

 _It's just a back, Clary!_

I was shaken out of my thoughts when Jace turned back around with an apple in his hand. "You want anything?"

"Coffee," I replied right away, and he chuckled.

"You're an addict." He teased, the corners of his eyes crinkling. I decided that I liked it better when he was smiling.

"And proud of it." I quipped, taking a seat as Jace started the coffee maker.

"So. . .what's the picture of?"

His back tensed. "What picture?" Jace asked, trying to play it off, but his voice was strained.

"The one you were just looking at."

His knuckles whitened as he grasped the counter. I expected him to respond with a nothing, but he took a shuddering breath. "My little sister."

"What's her name?"

Jace was quiet for a moment, and I thought that he wasn't going to answer. "Ella." He whispered. "Her name is Ella."

"Where is she?" I asked again, feeling my curiosity bubble over and get the best of me.

"What is this?" Jace said, his voice sharp all of a sudden. "Some kind of Spanish Inquisition?"

"No, I was just-"

He turned around, the molten gold of his eyes boring holes into my head. "Mind your own damn business, Fray, and stay out of my own."

Turning on his heel, Jace stalked out of the room.

. . .

"Who's Ella?" I asked Isabelle and Tessa that afternoon when they came over. We were sitting in the living room, doing basically nothing but sitting around and watching TV.

Isabelle sniffed and Tessa looked away. "Jace's sister."

"Did something happen to her?" I asked. "He wouldn't tell me what."

"He wouldn't tell you because he thinks it's all his fault, and he doesn't want you to see him like that. Besides, it's not just something that you sit down and discuss over a nice cup of tea. It's destroyed his life."

"What happened?" I asked, my voice soft.

Isabelle glanced around. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

She shook her head, brushing some of her long, inky black hair behind her ears. "Because I know Jace. And I also happen to know that he'll flip his lid if he finds out that I told you. Which he will, most undoubtedly. Besides, I like my head where it is."

"Isabelle."

"Fine," she said with a sigh of annoyance. "Let's just say that it nearly destroyed him, and he doesn't like to talk about it. He's going to tell you though, so you don't have to worry about that."

"I'm not worried about it." I replied sharply. "I was just. . .curious is all."

She shook her head, flopping back down onto the couch. "Aren't we all?"

"Come on, guys." Tessa said, clearly trying to be the referee in this situation. "Let's talk about something else."

"Ooh," Isabelle said, sitting up. Her attention was suddenly focused. "Like what you're naming that baby?"

Tessa bit her lip. "Will and I haven't really talked about it that much-"

Isabelle waved her hand. "You're the one who has to carry around the kid for nine months. He can suck it up and deal."

Tessa rolled her eyes. "Yes, well I think it should be something that we decide together."

"Do you have anything picked out so far?" I asked.

She thought for a moment. "Well. . .we don't have much so far. But I know Will's fond of the name James for a boy, Jem's his _parabatai._ And we haven't really decided on anything for a girl. Yet. But he's so excited that I can tell it isn't going to be long before we have a few more names picked out."

"Talking about me again I see?"

Will leaned over the couch and grinned at Tessa, his smile wide and impish.

"I have better things to do."

"Mm hm." He hummed, sitting down on the chair. Jace took the liberty of sitting down next to me.

I shot him a look. "Do you mind?"

He smirked. "Not at all."

I gritted my teeth and tried to focus on something else other than the fact that he'd draped his arm over the back of the couch so that it was resting behind my head. For some reason, the action was attracting my attention more than it should have been.

"You may or may not want to know," Jace started casually. "That I'm going to be gone for a few days."

"Oh," I replied smartly. "How lucky for me. I think that I'll have a party."

Jace rolled his eyes. "Don't be immature. Cece and Gabriel have generously offered up their time to come and stay here while I'm away."

I pulled back, suddenly not caring that there were other people in the room with us. "You don't think that I can take care of myself? Or is it that you think I'm just going to. . .I don't know, get up and run away? Don't you trust me enough by now?"

Jace's jaw tightened. "It's part of the deal-"

"You know what?" I said, my voice rising. "Screw the deal. If you think that I'm just some kind of property that can be bought and sold then better yet, screw _you."_

With that, I stood up and stalked out of the room, trying to ignore the dead silence that I had left behind.

. . .

I didn't go to my room.

Instead I went into the library and sat down on one of the window seats, trying to focus my simmering rage on something other than the boy downstairs.

Who did he think that he was? If he thought that he could just hire some kind of babysitter to come over here and make sure that I wasn't going to try anything without me protesting about it at all, then he was sorely mistaken. He wasn't the only one here who had the power to do things. I could take care of myself, and-

My inner rant to myself was interrupted when the devil himself opened up the room.

I set my chin and stared out the window.

"Thought I might find you in here." He started, taking a seat next to me on the window ledge. The nerve. "I checked your room, and I knew that this was the second most likely place that I was going to find you in."

I didn't bother responding.

"You can keep on ignoring me all you want." Jace continued. "All the more reason for me to get you a babysitter if your just going to keep acting like a ch-"

Before I could give it a second thought, I reached out and went in for the face, but he caught my wrist in his hand. And when I tried it again, he just grabbed the other one too.

I was ready to scream.

Jace's fingers were like iron as they encased my wrists. "Are you done yet?"

"Not even close," I hissed back.

He sighed. "We could do this all night, you know. I've got time."

"Well then you can give me a real answer this time. Why don't you trust me?"

Jace blew out an irritated breath. "This isn't about you. This is about-"

"The deal, right?"

His amber eyes narrowed. "Yes. Okay. Fine. It's about the deal. And you're right. I'm don't give a shit about what happens to you one way or another, which is why I've been taking care of you, fixing you breakfast in the middle of the night and giving your mother art supplies because I sat down and found out that she really loves to draw. And yes, you do drive me up the wall sometimes, but I have no doubt that I do the same thing to you. I asked Gabriel and Cecily to come over because I have had break ins before, and I'd hate to have it happen again while you were in the house. Especially if they did something to hurt you." Jace swallowed. "So yes, it really is all about me."

For a few seconds there was nothing but silence.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. "I didn't realize-"

He shrugged, running a hand through his hair. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I'm sorry that I ever made you think of me like that, even if I can be a pain in the ass sometimes. And I know it."

I allowed a small smile. "Okay. Then. . .I guess we've come to an agreement?"

Jace grinned. "Absolutely."

 **So here it is!**

 **I know that some of you were looking forward to finding out more about the girl in the picture, and I planned it out and everything, but then it turned out REALLY BADLY written, and the timing was just so wrong. But don't worry! We had a little Clace in this story, and there is going to be a lot more. Eventually.**

 **Happy Friday!**


	16. Chapter 16

Jace's departure took place in what I'm assuming was the middle of the night.

He never seemed to me to be the type of person who was good with saying goodbye; even if it was just for a few days. A week at the most.

The night before was no different from the others. I went up to my room and he went up into his; and that was it. But when I woke up in the morning, I could tell he was no longer there.

Maybe it was that annoying drop in my stomach that always told me that he wasn't anywhere near, or maybe I just already knew it in the back of my mind. Either way, it was still clear to me.

Jace was gone.

I sat up in my bed, cringing when I felt a dull pain in the pit of my stomach. The weak morning light was pouring into my bedroom, but the rest of the house was completely silent.

With a frown, I tossed off the covers and crept down the hallway, looking into the kitchen to see if there was anyone there.

Sure enough, a girl with raven black hair and eyes like blue sapphires was in the kitchen, her feet propped up on the kitchen island as she flipped through what I was assuming was a fashion magazine.

Not far behind her was a boy, with rusty colored hair and intelligent green eyes, his posture poor as he leaned up against the counter, his eyes fixed sulkily on the girl.

"Come on, Cece." He said, his tone bordering on annoyance. "I've explained to you time and time again that I won't be subjected to that kind of treatment, and I don't understand why-"

The girl turned around. "You know why, Gabriel." She said, her tone sharp. "I'm not going to talk about it anymore." And then, as if she'd known I'd been standing there the whole time, the girl turned around and offered me a cheerful grin, which I timidly returned.

"Hello!" She said, bright and chipper even though she'd been arguing with who I assumed was her boyfriend a few seconds before. "My name is Cecily. I'm Will's younger sister and Jace's cousin. This is Gabriel," she continued on, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the boy. "My part time boyfriend."

I gave him a little wave, but he just looked at me coldly. Not very friendly then.

Cecily sighed and hopped down from her position. "Don't mind him. Anyways, you're Clary. Jace left early this morning, so he's not going to be back for a few days." She rolled her eyes. "Gave me a whole lot of instructions too on how to care for his precious house. If I mess up a vacuum line in the carpet, I swear he'll disown me."

I couldn't help but smile at that. "That I knew."

She laughed. "Well, that's Jace for you. Always trying to make sure his life is in perfect order."

Seemingly irritated, Gabriel coughed to alert us of his presence. "Cece, I really think that we need to discuss this further-"

Ignoring him completely, Cecily linked her arm through mine and walked me forwards, talking with me as we made our way down the hallway.

She was a nice girl, probably my age with a good sense of humor. Cecily seemed to be one of the people who liked to attract attention to herself, but growing up with Will and Jace simultaneously. . .well, it wasn't that hard for me to understand. Jon had more or less been the same way, but I was always his quiet, awkward younger sister who never knew what to say.

I had always wondered about people who were chatterboxes. I had never been one myself, usually I was pretty quiet unless someone else started the conversation first, but Cecily seemed content to talk at me all day long.

"Oh!" She said, turning to me. "I almost forgot. Jace wants me to train you some more before he gets back." Cecily looked at me worriedly. "You don't mind, do you?"

I shook my head. "No! Of course not. Jace and I have never really seen eye to eye, so this should be something a little different."

She grinned. "Perfect."

. . .

I learned a good deal about Cecily during our training sessions. For one, she was a lot more easy going than Jace, which I thought would have made the whole thing easier, but as it was, I found that Cecily's kind demeanor made it more difficult to get any progress in.

"You're doing great!" She called, her voice upbeat. "Just a few more!"

It had been this way all morning; mainly rigorous training exercises that I got the feeling were designed to torture me. I could feel my breath becoming shallow as I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead. My stomachache was back in full force, and when I stopped, I couldn't seem to get up again.

Crap.

I could feel my heartbeat in my ears, and everything ached. Tunnel vision kicked in, and a dull ringing in my ears confirmed the worst.

I was going to faint.

Cecily's alarmed voice was calling out to me, but I couldn't bring myself to answer her. I curled up into a ball, shivers wracking my body.

And then the world went black.

. . .

Jace stood face to face with his enemy.

Of course, it hadn't always been this way. Once upon a time, this man had been a good friend to him. Someone that he trusted for his own reasons. Now, that trust was gone. And there wasn't any way for the man to get it back.

"Is it coming along alright?" He asked, his eyes boring into Jace's head. "Because if it isn't-"

"It's fine." Jace said coolly, picking disinterestedly at one of his cuticles. "I never break my word. Now or ever."

His jaw tightened. "It better be. Because we both know what I'm capable of doing if it isn't carried out properly."

Jace stared back. "You don't have any reason to distrust me."

The man laughed, the sound sharp and unpleasant. Jace almost winced. "Oh, if only you knew what I saw. I have the power to crush everything that matters to you if you don't carry out my orders. Now that our little meeting is over, I have other business to attend to."

Watching the man as he marched away, Jace jolted when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Hurriedly, he reached in and grabbed it.

"Hello?"

"Jace? It's Cece. You need to come home."

. . .

When my eyes opened, I was back in my bedroom.

Voices were out in the hallway, and I strained to hear them.

"-bad condition," one of them said. "She's been working herself too hard."

"Yes," Cecily murmured back. "He'll be here soon."

I closed my eyes again and drifted off.

My slumber didn't last long.

Someone placed the back of their hand on my forehead, muttering a few words under their breath.

"How long has she been like this?"

The voice that answered chilled me. _Not long. Hours at most, but not a full day yet. She's running a fever, and we suspect that it was provoked by overworking herself too much._

"When will she be better?" The male voice asked. Jace.

 _Soon. Just let her get a lot of rest and she should be fine._

When I woke up again for real, it was dark outside.

My head was silent, but shivers raced down my spine even though the back of my neck was sticky with sweat. My heart skipped a beat in my chest when I realized that I was not alone.

Jace was sitting in a chair next to my bedside, his eyebrows furrowed and his chest rising and falling steadily.

He looked tired, I thought groggily. His cheeks looked shallow and his eyes had the beginnings of purple shadows beneath them.

"Jace?" I asked, lightly touching his arm.

He jolted awake, his eyes darting around the room. "What?" He asked. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

He yawned, stretching out his arms. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap."

His lips twitched. "I wasn't expecting anything else."

"You don't have to stay in here with me, you know." I said, feeling guilty. "I'll be fine without you."

He grunted. "Nope. I'm going to stay right here."

"Aren't you uncomfortable?"

He shrugged, though I could tell he was. Very. "So?"

I sighed. "Get over here."

Jace's expression was highly amused as he sat down on my bed. "Why, are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?" He asked.

"Just stay on your side of the bed. Okay?"

"Practically married," Jace sang as he slid beneath the sheets, facing away from me. "Goodnight, Fray."

"See you in the morning, Herondale."

. . .

I woke up immobile.

At first I was totally panicked. Was I paralyzed? Was I on the verge of death?

The actual facts, however, were much more horrifying.

Jace's arm was draped over my torso, pulling me tightly to him. Our bodies were spooned together in perfect harmony, and I felt my face turn the shade of a tomato. Death by humiliation.

Classically Clary.

His breath was warm on the back of my neck, and I realized how close his lips were to my skin. If I moved just a little, he'd be kissing my neck.

Biting my lip, I tried to unwind our bodies. Jace, however, had other ideas. His arm tightened and his lips really were brushing my neck. My breath hitched in my chest when I realized this, and the beating of his heart against my back.

Now what happened when he woke up?

My question was answered about thirty seconds later, when Jace stirred and stretched.

"Morning," he said with a yawn, ruffling his hair with a hand.

"Hey," I replied, trying to keep my tone even. Why was he being so. . .casual about this? Was it something that he did on a regular basis or something?

The thought alone was enough to make me want to throw up.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as I turned around; blinking his amber eyes at me. "Better or worse?"

I shrugged. "More or less the same."

"Hm," Jace murmured. "Well, just take it easy today and we'll see how you are tomorrow. In the meantime," he said, throwing off the covers and rising up to his full height. "I am starving. Do you want anything?"

 **So yes, I know I brought Jace back into the story like right away, though I know a lot of you won't complain about that. ;) Anyways, the CLACE! Did you love it, hate it or just eh about it? Let me know what you guys think!**


	17. Chapter 17

I stood up on shaking legs, my world spinning as I tried to make my way across the room.

"What are you doing, Fray?" Jace demanded as he wrapped an arm around my waist and guided me towards the bathroom.

"Jace, I think I'm going to-"

However, I never did manage to get the next words out, because the second I opened my mouth, the only thing that came out was bile.

All over Jace.

Under normal circumstances, I probably would have found this something worth laughing at, but seeing as I couldn't even hold my own weight, the only thing that I could utter was a weak "sorry."

"It's fine," he said, yanking the ruined shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor, his blonde hair ruffled. "Let's just get you into the bathroom, okay?"

Jace helped me the rest of the way there, his hands holding back my hair as I stuck my head down the toilet. It probably wasn't a pretty sight. When we were both sure that my stomach was emptied, Jace led me to the bedroom once again.

Halfway there, he murmured, "screw this," and knocked my knees out from underneath me, carrying me bridle style over to my bed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning my head on his chest.

Jace laid me down and took the spot next to me. "You feeling any better, Fray?" He asked, his fingers skimming over my forehead.

I nodded, closing my eyes. "I'm feeling a little better now."

He stretched out beside me, humming something under his breath.

"What's that?" I asked, my eyes still closed. "That you're singing, I mean."

"A Welsh lullaby." He replied. "My aunt used to sing it to me and my sister every night before we went to bed."

"It's pretty."

Jace chuckled. "Thanks. Just one of my many talents."

And this time, I didn't argue with him as I drifted off to sleep.

. . .

He woke up a few hours later when someone was knocking on the door.

Glancing back down at Clary to make sure that she was still asleep, Jace threw back the covers and crossed the floor, swinging open the bedroom door to find Isabelle standing on the other side, her eyebrows raising when she saw his state of near undress.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said, sounding slightly amused.

Jace scratched the back of his head, closing the door as he leaned up against it. "What's going on, Iz?"

Instantly, her expression sobered up. "I don't think you're going to be able to go through with this." She said. "You're in too deep now."

Jace gritted his teeth. "What are you talking about?"

Isabelle sighed. "It's not necessarily a bad thing, Jace. I think that she's finally helping you get better, you seem happier since Ella-"

His jaw tightened. "I don't want to talk about it."

She sighed, her face falling. "You've been through a lot, Jace. And I know you think that Clary's going to think less of you when she finds out, but she wouldn't. Not in a million years. You're the only one who thinks that it's your fault. No one else believes it."

"I don't want to talk about this."

"You haven't ever talked about it, Jace! You need to talk to someone, you've been going through life believing that it was all your fault, when actually, you had something terrible happen to you. I know Ella meant a lot to you, she meant a lot to all of us. You're not the only one that misses her. But you need to stop thinking that this is all your fault. It's not, and it couldn't ever be. Do you understand?"

"What if something happened to Alec?" Jace said abruptly. "Something that you could have prevented if you'd just paid him a little more attention, and then he'd still be here with you today. How would you feel then?"

Isabelle shook her head. "It's not your fault, Jace." She whispered. "You have to know that."

He stared at her. "And if I don't know that?"

She sighed. "Well, then I can only tell you that it's not. I guess that's all that we can do until you start believing us."

"Good luck with that."

Needless to say, Isabelle shot him one last look before she rounded the corner and disappeared.

. . .

By some miracle, Jace was still in the bed when I woke up again.

He was sitting up and his brow was furrowed as he flipped through a book that had been residing on my nightstand. I yawned and stretched my arms over my head.

Jace glanced down at me. "Better now?"

"Much."

He gave me a crooked grin. "Awesome."

"I think I'm going to get something to eat," I announced, swinging my legs over the side of the bed, only pausing for a moment.

I heard Jace get up and walk ahead of me. "You doing okay, Fray?"

I licked my lips and nodded. "Mm hm."

Jace didn't look totally convinced, but he made his way down the staircase behind me until we entered the kitchen.

"So, what do you want?" He asked, leaning up against the counter. "Cereal? Toast? I'm pretty sure we have stuff for soup around here somewhere. . ."

"I can get myself some cereal."

And so it was that Jace and I ended up sitting down across from eachother over bowls of Lucky Charms. He still looked a little drained, but a lot better than usual. His amber eyes were still sleepy, and even I couldn't help but wonder at the injustice that gave him the right to look so handsome after lying around in bed all day.

"Again, I'm really sorry about your shirt." I said, breaking the silence.

He shrugged. "It's no big. Just one of the million and one black shirts that I own." Jace cracked a smile. "Don't worry about it."

"So, I've actually been meaning to ask you; what's with the black anyways?"

Jace looked out the window. "A Shadowhunter thing. We usually wear white for funerals or times of mourning, brides wear gold on their wedding day, and black when we go into battle."

"Then why do you wear it all the time?"

He gave me a wry smile. "I spend a lot of my time fighting and training."

"How could I forget?"

Jace ran a hand through his hair. "You're slipping up, Fray." He said, his tone teasing.

We spent some time talking at the kitchen table that afternoon. More than I really care to admit. Jace was, surprisingly, the type of person who would listen when you wanted to say something. And I found that I liked that. He had a nice smile, when it was genuine. There was a dimple in his right cheek and the corners of his eyes crinkled when he was laughing at something. I found that I liked him better when he was happy and not sarcastic.

Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"You know what I miss the most about home?" I said suddenly, hugging my knees to my chest.

Jace's grin suddenly slipped from his face.

"Going outside." I mumbled. "It sounds stupid, I know, but I haven't been outside in over a month, and I just-"

Jace stood up, outstretching his hand. "Come with me."

 **Cliffhanger!**

 **I really hope you guys like this one, and if there are any Potterheads out there reading this, I hope you'll give my other new story a shot! It's called Mischief Managed.**

 **Have a great rest of the week!**


	18. Chapter 18

It was amazing how quickly time passed when you weren't paying attention.

As Jace and I had been talking in the kitchen, night had fallen and the stars had risen up into the dark sky. One of the best things about nighttime was the quiet; nothing but the chirping of crickets while the rest of the world slept.

It was a clear night, I realized as I breathed the air in. The cold bit at my skin, causing me to shiver, but Jace hardly seemed bothered at all as he tilted his face up towards the night sky.

"Beautiful out, isn't it?" He murmured.

I nodded, looking up at the endless canvas of stars over our heads.

"How often do you come up here?" I asked him, sitting down on the roof.

He shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets, suddenly seeming uncomfortable with the question. "Not a lot. Lately a lot less than I've usually been."

He didn't seem too interested in elaborating, so I didn't push it.

I hadn't ever been one to stargaze, but looking up at the night sky now, I couldn't recall why. The stars were endless pinpricks in a rich blue blanket, and the sight of them took my breath away. Jace seemed keen on keeping quiet as the two of us stretched out beside eachother on the roof. His gaze was fixed thoughtfully on the scene above him, his hands clasped behind his head as he leaned back, each of us thinking our own thoughts.

It was, all things considered, one of the only times Jace and I were sharing the same space and being quiet. He always tended to bring out some kind of unfamiliar emotion buried deep inside me that I never realized I had until that very moment. I never considered myself to be angered easily, and yet there I was, always having a fight of some sort with him. I didn't get conflicted about much, my life before had been so simple. And lately, it had been more of a fluttering in my stomach whenever he came near. And the feeling was so new, so foreign, that I never knew how to react.

Even now as I glanced over at him, I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about. Maybe his sister? His family? His real parents? Jace's mind was forever a mystery to me, and I knew he liked to keep it that way.

"Feel better?" Jace asked me.

I nodded, turning my head to face his. "Awesome."

Jace's eyes were hooded as he looked at me. Sure, I had always thought of him as attractive, but it was more of an annoying fact that was always tugging at the back of my mind more than anything else. But now it was something else.

The moonlight made his eyes look impossibly more golden, and his face more contoured and shadowed. And there was some kind of unfamiliar emotion in his eyes, something that I couldn't identify.

And then the both of us were moving closer, and still impossibly nearer as we got so close that his nose brushed my own. Jace's eyes closed, and I swear his lips were less than a centimeter away from capturing my own, but he let out a small, almost inaudible groan and moved away.

Without even realizing it, my heartbeat had picked up to a thundering beat as Jace had been moving closer, and it wasn't getting any quieter as he leaned back and sighed.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I wasn't supposed to. . .never mind."

Something in my stomach dropped, and suddenly I felt like the stupidest person in the world. How could I think that he actually liked me anyways? Someone like him and someone like _me?_ Impossible. No one in their right minds would ever be crazy enough to dream that up.

"I'm getting kind of tired." I said quietly. "Goodnight, Jace."

"Clary-"

I shut the trapdoor before he could say anything else. And when I went to my room, I pulled the covers up over my head and didn't move until morning.

. . .

I didn't really want to get out of bed that next morning, but my stomach had other ideas, because I still rolled of bed at eight thirty.

In total, I probably logged about forty five minutes of sleep that entire night, mostly because my brain was on hyper drive with all of the stuff that was going on. But I'd be lying if I said that Jace wasn't at the center of it all.

He was one of the most frustrating people that I'd ever met. He knew just what to say to make you melt, and then the next minute, he'd totally change his game. And I was getting sick of it.

So when I found out that he was still in the kitchen when I came down, I marched right past him and threw open one of the cupboards, grabbing a granola bar and making a move to stalk back up in the direction of the staircase, but Jace caught me by the arm.

"Let go of me," I snapped, trying to pull away. "I'm really not in the mood for your little games this morning, Herondale."

Jace sighed, pulling me around so that I was facing him. And I discovered that even with him sitting down, our heads were about level.

"Ever since I came here, you've been nothing but cryptic and demeaning." I began, feeling my temper suddenly flare when I looked into his golden eyes. "And you toy with my emotions and do something like you did last night, lead me on and bring me out on the roof so that we can look at the stars, you almost kiss me, and then you stop yourself without even telling me why. And I bet you were going to go through the same cycle again, weren't you? Does that give you some kind of satisfaction, or am I just amusing to watch?"

I was breathing hard by the time I was finished, but Jace didn't looked that phased. His face was a calm mask, which only frustrated me more.

"What happened last night. . .I didn't go out there having the intention to kiss you. It just happened sort of in the heat of the moment." He gave me a wry smile. "I'm sure you know what that's like."

My anger pulsated through my body, and without even thinking about it, I reached out and slapped him.

"You're such an asshole. I can't believe that you actually think that it's completely okay to just play with people's emotions and then just drop them." I shook my head. "But I guess I couldn't expect anything better from someone like you."

Without looking back, I stalked up the stairs to my bedroom and slammed the door.

 **New chapter!**

 **And yes, I know that Jace was being a total jerk towards the end, but he doesn't really know what he's feeling right now, so just keep that in mind before you give him too much hate.**

 **Sydney, I'd love to tell you that I have an updating schedule, but the truth is that I don't. It gets kind of difficult to keep up with, and sometimes the chapters end up totally rushed.**

 **I would have published this one a lot earlier, but I actually rewrote the whole thing because I hated the way the old one turned out. So I hope you guys liked this one, even if it is short!**


	19. Chapter 19

I was pretty sure that there had never been a more uncomfortable situation.

Jace and I still weren't speaking to each other, and I wasn't about to admit defeat on this one. I wasn't even sure why I was so upset. It wasn't even the almost kiss and then pulling away that bothered me so much.

He wasn't who I thought he was.

This realization made my stomach twist. I'd been building him up to be this extraordinary person who had just had a rough past, but it was becoming more and more clear to me that maybe he was something else. There were times when he'd shown me kindness, but what if that was one of those in-the-heat of the moment things?

It's an awful thing to realize that you've been so completely wrong about a person, mostly if you thought there was something good in them, but then you realize it's all a charade, and the partial good doesn't make up for the bad.

Not even a little bit.

And I wasn't really going to leave my room to have the chance of meeting up with him in the hallway. Now _that_ would be pretty unfortunate.

I pulled the blankets over my head and drifted off to sleep.

. . .

It wasn't until late that night that I heard a noise.

My eyes cracked open and I listened carefully, my heart pounding rapidly in my ears. I had never been very good when it came to a crisis situation, and that still hadn't changed.

For a blissful moment I thought that it had just been all in my head, when it sounded again.

And this time, it was followed by a string of curses.

Swallowing hard, I threw the covers back and tiptoed over to the door and turned the knob, which surprisingly, opened.

Slowly, I made my way down the stairs and towards the general direction of the weapons room, where the sounds were coming from.

I felt as if I was in some kind of horror movie as I pressed my ear up against the door and listened hard for something.

The thumping noise sliced through the air, and I cringed back from the door, knowing that I had to go in and see what it was.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly pushed open the door silently.

My alarm ceased but was soon replaced by wariness as I laid eyes on Jace, who was on his knees in the middle of the room. His blonde hair was sticking up in every possible wrong direction, and as I watched, he drew a knife out of his belt and hurled it at the target, hitting it with a loud thump.

Since I wasn't really in the mood for another lecture, I started to back away from the door when Jace spoke.

"You're not very good at sneaking up on people, Fray."

His tone was dry, but at the sound of his voice, adrenaline pumped through my body and I suddenly felt ten times more awake.

"Well, if you could keep quiet during your nightly slaughter sessions, then maybe I could get some sleep and leave you to it." I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. "You're not the only person here, you know."

"Oops. Guess I forgot." Jace replied, though I could tell his heart wasn't really in the remark. He kept spinning the knife around and around in his hands with his fingers, and I watched, fascinated despite myself. I had never been very graceful.

"Well, don't forget next time." I snapped back. Jace looked up at me and the corner of his mouth twitched with mild humor, but his eyes looked tired. I swallowed, the next words tumbling out of my mouth before I had the chance to stop them. "Are you, um, okay?"

"What, you're concerned for my well-being now?" He said, his eyes glimmering. Jace placed a hand over his heart. "I never knew you cared so much."

"Fine," I snarled. "Act like an asshole. See if I care. It's not like you know how to do anything else!"

Jace's jaw tightened, the first signs of anger showing on his handsome features. "That's not fair."

"Oh, yeah? How so? You're the one whose always playing with my mind and my emotions, one day acting so sweet and making sure that I'm feeling okay, not freaking out when I threw up on your shirt, and taking me up onto the roof to look at the stars. And then you almost kiss me and turn me down the next day. Well, how am I supposed to treat you? You think that the world just revolves around you-"

"I don't think that."

Jace's voice was quiet when he spoke, but somehow that alone was enough to stop me in my speech that I'd been preparing in my head.

At my look of bewilderment, Jace groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "I'm an idiot, okay?" He spat out. "I said it. I'm stupid and the other night on the roof. . .I just kind of lost it. I didn't want you to regret anything, and that's why I stopped." Jace looked up at me. "So I'm sorry."

I swear the room was so quiet that if a pin dropped, I would've heard it.

"I-I wouldn't have regretted it."

My voice was small, but it seemed to echo across the room. _Shut up, Clary!_ My conscious screamed. I already knew that I wasn't all that good when it came to saying what had to be said.

And then somehow, Jace was standing right in front of me even though I hadn't heard him move. He caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing me to look up into his eyes.

They were the softest shade of gold.

I'm not really sure what happened next; whether he was leaning towards me or I him, but then his lips touched mine and the finer details didn't seem to matter much anymore.

Surprisingly enough, Jace was _warm._ His hands were rough and callused as they slid along my neck and tangled in my hair, but his lips were much, much softer than I could have imagined.

Like some kind of untamed wild animal, I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him close to me so that I could feel his steady heartbeat against my own raging one. He probably thought I was completely psycho.

But I didn't care.

My first kiss wasn't something that I sat around all day fantasizing about like Aline. I just figured that when it was going to happen, then it would happen. I wasn't going to go out of my way to win a kiss from some guy who may or may not ditch me five minutes later.

Jace's hands were everywhere all at once; first in my hair, then skimming down the sides of my torso, and pulling me closer, closer.

Meanwhile I was completely caught up in the kissing part of the whole experience. I had never willingly kissed a boy before, and I certainly didn't count Sebastian, who was just about as nauseating as they come. But this was different. Jace was firm and gentle at the same time, and he really seemed to know what he was doing, probably since he'd kissed countless girls.

But the thought didn't bother me.

Finally when I felt like my lungs were about to explode, Jace pulled back and rested his forehead against mine, his breath heavy as he planted a kiss on the tip of my nose. "You're one hell of a kisser, Fray."

I smiled. "You're not so bad yourself."

Jace grinned, and for once, it looked real. The sight of it turned my heart to mush, as cheesy as it sounds. "Good to know." He replied, something akin to happiness flooding his expression, something that I did not associate with Jace.

At all.

He chuckled. "You look shocked. I hope I didn't just commit some sort of crime."

"No," I said quickly. "I mean, the only guy I've ever kissed is Sebastian, and I really don't even count that-"

"Sebastian?" Jace's voice was sharp before he took a deep breath. "Right. I. . .forgot about that."

I shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal." I wrinkled my nose. "He was pretty terrible, though."

Jace muttered something under his breath that I still somehow managed to miss even standing as close to him as I was. But it was most likely an insult towards the boy in question.

He sucked in a breath and ran a hand through his hair. "So do you forgive me now?"

I rolled my eyes and smacked his arm. "Ha ha. You're hilarious."

Jace looked genuinely offended. "So that wasn't the most earth-shattering thing that you've ever experienced?"

I laughed. "Let me get back to you on that, Herondale."

He smirked before pulling me closer to him once again.

 **Whew! I updated!**

 **Sorry to those of you who thought that Jace and Clary didn't stay fighting for as long as they should have, but I'm not very good at writing the tension scenes, so we've got a first kiss instead!**

 **And we WILL find out more about Jace's little sister and his deal in upcoming chapters, so please stick around!**


	20. Chapter 20

For a few blissful seconds in the morning, I had no recollection of the events from the night before.

Those moments were cut short, however when a flood of memories crashed through my mind and I'm pretty positive that I did turn a hundred and one shades of red just thinking about Jace.

Had I really kissed him? Or was that just my overactive imagination on hyper drive?

I looked down, noticing that I was in my bed, though I couldn't remember ever coming up here. And where was Jace anyways?

I thought hard, but all I got was one big blank hole in my memory.

With a groan, I flopped back down onto the bed, wishing that my useless memory would somehow manage to conjure up whether I had really kissed Jace Herondale or not. And even if I had, what if he regretted it? What if he had just been responding in the heat of the moment and now it meant nothing to him? I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Jace was famous for throwing women around like rag dolls, and maybe that's all I was to him; some toy to play with until he got bored and moved onto someone else. I certainly couldn't understand it to be any other way. Jace was tall and well, pretty much as close to beautiful as any male could get, and I was sure that I must have looked like some kind of sad clown doll in comparison.

By the time I managed to drag myself out of bed, I had convinced myself of one or two theories.

1\. I had never kissed Jace the night before.

2\. I had kissed him, and he was promptly requesting a restraining order as we speak.

I wouldn't find that last one hard to believe.

I tiptoed through the hallways, trying to make as little noise as possible so that I wouldn't rouse the sleeping beast. I could hear my mother's loud snores from inside of her room as I passed by her and hid a smile behind my hand. It was a wonder that anyone around here got any sleep with her staying here.

I successfully made it into the kitchen with little event when I stopped short.

Jace was standing in the kitchen by the sink. His shirt was off, and his golden skin was glistening with a light layer of sweat. On another man, this would have looked hideous, but Jace wore the look quite well, especially when he ran his long fingers through his damp hair and stretched his arms over his head, the muscles in his abdomen shifting.

I'm sure that about a thousand bugs flew into my mouth since the time that my jaw had hit the floor.

Jace must have felt me watching him, because he looked over with an easy smile. "Hey, Fray. Did you sleep well?"

I nodded, closing my mouth and blushing for the hundred and second time that morning. "Yeah. What about you?"

He shrugged. "Well, I was a little busy until late last night," Jace wiggled his eyebrows. "You may remember."

Make that a hundred a three.

"Yeah," I squeaked, my voice about an octave higher than usual. "I remember."

Jace smiled impishly and walked over, planting a kiss on my cheek. Meanwhile, I was still recovering from my latest round of blushes, and Jace's kiss certainly didn't help things.

I didn't understand how cool and collected he could be about this, but I had always had a tendency to overthink just about everything. Even the finer details. When he noticed that I wasn't responding any more than a stone statue would, he pulled back with a frown. "Is something wrong?"

I shook my head fervently. "No! Sorry, I'm still, like, half asleep."

Jace shrugged, but he didn't look convinced.

"So," he began. "Are we still up for some more training for today? I know you haven't been at it in awhile."

"Sure," I replied, even though the thought of training today wasn't the most inviting option. "Sounds okay to me."

Jace ran a hand through his hair before he started towards the stairs. "Give me a few minutes to get changed, and then we can start."

. . .

"So, we're going to try attacking again." He began, adjusting the hem of his black T-shirt. "You up for it?"

I nodded. "I bet I can take you."

He snorted. "In your dreams. Come at me."

This time, I was more prepared for Jace's moves. But even so, he moved swiftly and silently, like some kind of predatory lion, just waiting for the kill.

He moved so fast at one point that for a second I thought that he'd just vanished into thin air. I turned around, confused, when I felt arms wrap around my waist and pull me back against a body.

"Gotcha." He whispered in my ear, kissing the hollow beneath my ear.

Like some kind of idiot, I just swallowed, my heart pounding a million miles a minute and my stomach fluttering with nervous butterflies.

"That wasn't nice." I scolded, hating how my voice shook just a little, especially since he seemed so unaffected.

Jace chuckled, his breath washing over my ear. "I'm not a very nice person to begin with."

Deciding to see if I could give him a taste of his own medicine, I turned around, and, not sure where my sudden boldness had risen from, trailed my hand down his chest until it rested just above his heart, which was slowly starting to pound faster.

I slipped my other hand under the hem of his T-shirt.

Jace sucked in a breath and grabbed my hand. "That's enough."

Disappointment flooded through me. Maybe he didn't like me as much as I liked him?

"It's not that," Jace said, as if reading my mind. "It's just. . .I respect you, Fray. Too much to just jump into something so quickly."

"You don't have to worry about protecting me."

"Oh, but I think I do." Jace murmured, kissing my forehead. "I need to make sure you know how important you are to me."

Today, it seemed like I was never going to be able to stop smiling.

 **Um. . .hello again?**

 **So yes, I know that I vanished into thin air for a MONTH, but life just got kind of crazy, and I've been trying out some new stuff lately.**

 **So I know this one is a little shorter than usual, but I hope you all liked it just the same!**


	21. Chapter 21

Jace leaned back against the couch, sighing in contentment.

I was sitting right next to him, his arm draped loosely over my shoulder as we watched an old movie that he really seemed to like.

It was a rainy afternoon, a perfect day for training, but that seemed to be the furthest thing from Jace's mind as he played with my hair and kissed the corners of my lips.

I had to admit, I wasn't minding it so much either.

"Well, well." Said an amused voice from behind us. "What do we have here?"

I turned around, surprised, but Jace only muttered something under his breath.

Will stood there looking strangely triumphant as he looked down on Jace and I, sprawled on the couch.

"Mind your own business, why don't you?" Jace bit back, sounding mildly irritated.

"Where's the fun in that?" Will asked, flopping down onto the armchair. "Ooh, what are we watching?"

With a scowl, Jace flicked off the TV. "Out with it. What are you doing here?"

"I came to speak to my favorite little cousin, of course." Will teased, but the humor in his eyes had vanished.

Jace seemed to notice this at the same time I did, because he turned and offered me a little crooked smile. "I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"

I shook my head. "Don't do anything too stupid while you're gone."

He chuckled, pressing a lingering kiss on my forehead before he threw back the blanket and stood up, stretching before following Will up the stairs. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of a door closing.

Even though I knew what they said about eavesdroppers, I couldn't help but tiptoe up the staircase and listen until I found out what room they had gone into.

"-can't do this." Will was saying, his voice low. "Don't you know how much danger your putting both of your lives in?"

"You think I haven't thought of that?" Jace spat back, his voice more frigid than I'd ever heard him sound before. "I wasn't planning for any of this to happen."

"I could see it happening from the very beginning." Will muttered in response. "You were always going to go after her."

"I'm not trying to put her in danger, William." Jace said. "I'd risk my life to protect her."

Was he talking about me? I'm pretty sure my heartstrings tugged a little when he said that. But who were they talking about?

"I know, Jace." Will said, his voice soft. "But I'm worried for the both of you. You know how ruthless he is, and I just don't want-"

"I get it." Jace said, his voice short and clipped.

"Are you going to tell her?"

I could almost see Jace grinding his teeth together. "When I have to tell her, I'll tell her. I just don't want her to think so little of me, even if I do deserve it."

By this point, I was seriously curious to find out what they were talking about, but before I could hear any more of the conversation, the sound of footsteps were rapidly approaching the door.

I raced down the stairs and leapt onto the couch, pulling the blanket over myself and trying to make it seem like I wasn't just listening in on some top-secret conversation upstairs.

Jace and Will came down about five seconds after I did, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Will said his goodbyes and left, closing the door tightly behind him.

Jace came and sat down next to me, but he didn't seem as at ease as he had been before.

"Everything alright?" I asked brightly, looking up at him with false cheer.

If I didn't know him, I never would have been able to guess that the smile on his face wasn't real. "Yeah, everything's fine."

I wish I could have believed him.

. . .

Over the next few day, I sensed that something had Jace wound up. He was more jumpy; not the relaxed, laid back boy that I'd gotten used to living with.

Something was bothering him. And I had no idea what it was.

He wasn't going to tell me either. I already knew Jace well enough to say that he'd surely just wave me away when I asked what was going on with him. Sometimes it truly mystified me how little I actually knew about him.

I knew nothing about his family besides Will and Cecily, but his parents weren't ever around, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dying to know what happened to them. When I thought about it, the only real things that I knew about Jace Herondale was that he liked to fight, he lived in a big house, he was absurdly rich, and he was all alone.

Why should my life be something so accessible to him when I knew nearly nothing about his?

So I decided that I was going to find out.

It was one of those days where everything felt like it was moving slow. Heavy clouds hung in the sky, threatening rain, but so far, they hadn't showed any other signs of it. It looked chilly out, and a low fog hovered above the ground.

Jace was in the kitchen, tapping his fingernail on the table as he stared at the wall, seemingly lost in thought.

I slid into the chair across from his own.

At first, it was like he didn't even notice that I was there. His expression was nearly vacant, his golden eyes unfocused. His hair looked like it hadn't seem a hairbrush in days, and there were dark circles ringing his eyes.

"Can I ask you a question?" I began, my voice ringing in the silent kitchen.

Jace blinked slowly, his eyes focusing on me. "Sure." He said, his voice distant. "What's up?"

I cleared my throat. "Are you okay?"

"Of course," he mumbled, shoving some hair out of his eyes. "I'm a hundred and ten percent, Fray. What makes you think otherwise?"

"Because you're staring at the wall like it's a map on Pangaea."

"Sorry," he said with a sigh, rubbing his palms over his eyes. "I'm just a little out of it lately."

"Jace." I said, placing my hand on his arm. "What's going on?"

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"Don't do that." I reprimanded, feeling my emotions get the better of me. "Why are you brushing me off like this?"

"I'm not brushing you off."

"Yes, you are! And I'm worried about you! You haven't been acting the same since Will came over, and I want to know why. You think I like seeing you tearing yourself apart like this? Just tell me, Jace. Please tell me what's going on."

For a moment the only sound in the kitchen was the sound of the fridge humming and the clock ticking. Jace's gaze was firmly locked on my own, emotion on top of emotion skipping through his gaze.

"I can't." He said, his voice cracking on the second word. "I'm sorry."

"Why not?"

"Because, Clary." Jace said wearily. "I just can't."

I shook my head. "Look, Jace. This hardly seems fair. You know a lot about me, but I don't seem to even scratch the surface in comparison when it comes to you. Like your parents. And your sister. And whatever else is going on. I don't know about any of it, and I want you to be able to trust me. Please don't just walk away and pretend like everything's okay. You don't have to deal with this by yourself."

Jace tugged on his hair. "I've never talked about my family. Not with anyone. It's a pretty screwed-up story, Fray. One that I'm sure you're not going to like."

"I don't care."

He offered me a ruthful smile. "I know. I was afraid you were going to say that."

I waited for another moment as Jace took some time to collect himself.

"My family. . ." he began slowly, his eyes fixed on the wood of the table. "Well, we never really were a family. My parents were never around. They'd be home for a day or two at a time, but then the next morning, they'd be gone again. And they'd leave me home with Ella. It was just the two of us, so we got to be pretty close. She was all I had. And then one day, they left and they never came back."

Jace's eyes didn't move as he continued speaking. "My aunt Linette decided that it was time for her to step in after awhile. She took me and Ella in, and for awhile, life was pretty good. Will and I got to be close friends, like we are today. My uncle Edmund trained Will and I together to be Shadowhunters, and it was some of the best times of my life. But in my experience, things never seem to be good for very long. Something always had to go bump in the road."

I was sitting perfectly still as Jace told his story, afraid to miss even a tiny piece of it as he continued talking.

"Ella had always been fragile growing up; she got sick easily, and she was always small for her age. Small and pale. It always propelled me to be right there next to her. Eventually, we'd been living with them for a few years, and it was time for Ella to get her runes. I was pretty excited about it; it meant that she was finally going to be recognized as a Shadowhunter. Honestly, I think I was anticipating it more than she was." At this, Jace allowed the smallest of smiles to appear on his face before it vanished, leaving no sign that it was ever there in the first place.

"It was the day that she was supposed to get her runes. The Silent Brothers, Ella, me, and the rest of the Herondales were there. She was wearing this red dress that she had picked out the week before, and she loved that damn thing. She looked so pretty in it." Jace whispered, his fists clenching in his lap. He took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "She said the vows and then they went to put the first of the runes on her arm, but about ten seconds in, she looked at me, and I knew that something was so terribly wrong."

Jace pressed the heels of his palms over his eyes, and for a second I thought he wasn't going to be able to continue his story. When he spoke, his voice was nothing but a whisper.

"The runes were too strong. She was suddenly so weak, and so we took her home and put her to bed, because the Silent Brothers told us that there was nothing that they could do. I. . .I spent the whole night right there by her bedside, and by the time the sun had broken out over the horizon the next morning, she was dead."

By the time Jace was finished with his story, his deep, ragged breaths were all that filled the kitchen, and tears welled in my eyes. He wasn't crying, but when he pulled his hands away, his eyes were rimmed with red.

"It was all my fault, Clary. All my fault." He said, chanting the words over and over again like a prayer.

"No, no, no. Jace," I said, reaching out my hands and grabbing his own for fear that he would slip away. "Look at me. Jace, _look_ at me."

He did, and the sight of his expression nearly broke my heart.

"It's not your fault, okay? Nothing that happened was your fault."

Jace shook his head. "It was. I should have seen that she wasn't ready; I should have known that something bad was going to happen. She was _all_ I had-"

"No, she wasn't." I said, trying to keep my voice from wavering. "You have Will and Cecily, Linette, Edmund, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, and now you have me. You're not alone, Jace. You're never alone."

I walked across the table and wrapped my arms around his neck, and he squeezed me back, his body shaking all over, and that scared me more than tears ever could.

I held him close, feeling like he was suddenly ten years younger, so young and fragile. Destroyed by something that he couldn't control.

My heart broke for him as he held me impossibly tighter. I ran my fingers through his soft hair in attempt at a soothing gesture, and after a few minutes, it seemed to work, and his body slowly started to relax.

For a long time no words were spoken between the two of us, and in that silence, having no words spoke volumes. More than I ever thought it could.

We sat there holding eachother for our own, small eternity.

 **Poor Jace. :(**

 **So know you all know what happened with his sister, and I almost cried while writing this.**

 **But on a happier note, it's almost summer vacation! I'm literally so psyched, guys. You have no idea.**

 **Concerned Reader, I'd never leave you hanging! I may have a major case of writer's block every now and then, but I always finish my stories!**

 **Have a great weekend!**

 **-Sara**


	22. Chapter 22

**I know that I posted this one right away again, but I had it written and everything, and I've been dying to share it with you guys!**

 **Enjoy! :)**

As much as I would love to say that nothing between Jace and I changed, I'd be lying.

He seemed like he was waiting for me to rethink my reaction on the whole thing, like I'd made some kind of mistake when I'd told him that it wasn't his fault.

Every time I'd touch him, he'd flinch like it stung him. He wouldn't look at me, touch me, and we certainly weren't kissing.

Needless to say, it was driving me crazy.

I'd tried to rekindle what we'd had going on a week prior to all of this when we were lounging in the living room one night. I was sketching and watching Jace out of the corner of my eye, who was staring at the pages of a book without really seeing it.

It was like nothing had changed.

I swallowed and flipped the paper over, moving to sit beside him.

He glanced over at me, offering a little quirk of his lips, but not much else.

Feeling bold, I grabbed a blanket and settled into his side, his heart beating steadily against his rib cage. Jace was always, always warm, his body practically radiating heat as I closed my eyes. Neither him or I said anything for a few minutes, but the silence was so far from comforting. Jace seemed a million miles away. And I hated that. I hated that he didn't trust me, I hated that he was acting like this. I missed the boy who was witty and sarcastic, funny and bold. I missed the way he'd run his fingers through his hair when he got frustrated or the way his eyes would crinkle at the corners when he laughed. I found myself smiling when I thought of the look he'd give me right before he'd pull some kind of outrageous bold move.

I missed Jace.

"Where are you?" I whispered, and something about my words seemed to bring him back to the present.

"I'm right here," he said, sounding vaguely puzzled. "Where else would I be?"

"Not here." I mumbled. "You're not acting like you, Jace."

He sighed, the sound weary. "I know."

"Well, I miss you."

I looked up at him, and he was looking down at me, something in his expression so torn that my heart clenched a little at the sight.

"You're not going to be staying here much longer." He said bluntly, nearly out of nowhere.

I blinked. "Am I going home?"

Jace let out a humorless chuckle. "That depends on what you consider to be home."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, feeling my pulse race. "Where am I going?"

Jace took a deep breath. "I know I've hit you with a lot in the past week with everything about my sister. . .but there's more to the story. More that I've been dreading telling you, because I know that you'll never look at me the same way again, and I don't know if I can stand that." He whispered.

I sat up, feeling suddenly wary. "What?"

Jace looked down at his hands. "After Ella died. . .well, things just went downhill for me. I couldn't seem to find a place to plant my feet, and I was more slippery than a stick of butter." He said, some of his old humor coming back into light. But then it was gone again. "I used to go out drinking every night, and that's pretty much exactly what was going on the night I met him."

Alarm bells were ringing in my head, and I had an idea that this story wasn't going to be something that I was willing to hear. But I had to know; why was I even here, with Jace Herondale, in the first place.

"I swear I was drunk out of my mind," Jace continued, "but somehow I can still remember it all. Every second of conversation with him.

"He was charming, dressed in an expensive black suit and even darker sunglasses, if you can believe it. We were in a bar, but like I said, nothing was making a ton of sense to me right about then, so I just brushed it off when he came over to talk to me." Jace shifted his weight, and I watched him closely, the sense of foreboding growing larger and larger.

"We talked for awhile, and he seemed very interested in my parents, who were very rich and well-known around. Since they died, all of their money had become mine, and by this time, I was probably one of the most well-known Shadowhunters in America, which didn't seem to slip past this guy." Jace's eyes flicked up to mind before dropping back down again. "And he started talking with me about a girl that he was interested in having trained. . .by me."

By this point, I had slowly begun to slid away from him on the couch, my heart pounding rapidly in my ears. "Don't say it." I whispered, but Jace didn't seem to hear me.

"He said that she and her mom lived in this little village that no one had ever heard of before, and that the girl was never going to be willing to leave her mother behind. He said that it was best if I had someone keeping watch over her until I could pick her up, someone that would keep her in line because she could get a little. . .rough around the edges at times. And that she was stubborn. Very, very stubborn." Jace's hands were shaking as he ran his fingers through his hair. "So he gave me the money, even if I didn't really need it. But at the same time, it was like I couldn't refuse. So I took the money."

My ears were ringing and my mouth was dry, but Jace wasn't finished yet.

"And I hired Sebastian the next day to keep an eye out on the girl. He said that he was more than willing to do it, but I didn't know what that meant at that time. He told me that when her training was complete, then he'd be here to pick her up." Jace said, dropping his head into his hands.

"What was the girl's name?" I whispered, though I already knew the answer.

Jace looked at me. "Clarissa Fray."

"No," I said, his words suddenly making the whole thing true. "It's not true."

Jace was nodding. "It is. Clary, I'm so-"

"Don't touch me!" I nearly screamed as Jace's arms reached for me, and his face crumpled. "Is that all I was to you? Sebastian used me, he played with me, he raped me on numerous occasions, all just so you could have a little bit of _money?!_ And you just agreed to this just. . .just because? Didn't you ever stop and think that it would ruin my life?! And did you ever even like me enough to kiss me? Or was that just another part of the deal that you left out?"

Jace's face was agonized as he stared at me. "Of course I care about you! I never-"

He was cut off by my sob, and if I thought his expression was bad before, it was nothing compared to now.

I couldn't handle it anymore. I sprinted out of the living room and up the stairs, slamming the door to my room shut and locking it behind me, falling onto my bed as my tears soaked the pillowcases.

How could I have ever believed him?

All this time, I hadn't realized that I had been bought just because Jace felt like he had to accept the money. He'd paid Sebastian to keep an eye on me; Sebastian, the one who I dreaded seeing, the one who made my life living Hell.

"Clary." Jace said, his voice sounding from outside my door. "Please don't-"

"Leave me alone." I bit out, hating how my voice sounded so weak.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice breaking. "I'm so sorry."

"Go away."

There was a slight pause, and then the slow sound of Jace walking away.

If it was even possible, I cried even harder.

 **So I know that I've been laying on the drama really thick here, but don't worry! I really enjoy writing cute scenes too, so there's definitely going to be a lot of those.**

 **Lizdotgirl; I know how you're feeling, girlfriend! Jace and Clary will eventually have some of those scenes once we get past the heavy stuff, and then we'll have the true sappiness. ;)**

 **Hope all enjoyed this chapter, and remember to be patient with Clary. I was never planning for her to take this information about Jace well.**


	23. Chapter 23

I'd lost track of time.

What felt like hours must have been days, maybe even weeks, but I had no idea.

I hadn't left my room in what felt like an eternity for fear of running into Jace in the hallway and having an extremely awkward encounter that I was not looking forward to at all.

I wasn't sure where I stood with him in my head. Even though I knew I should hate him for buying me like I was a piece of meat and siccing Sebastian on me, some small part of me whispered that I wasn't mad at him.

I was more angry with myself.

How could I have possibly believed that he actually cared about what happened to me? Did I really believe that he was just going after me just because?

No. I knew he had a reason. I just never thought it would be as cruel as this.

I buried my face in my pillow, letting out a groan.

Suddenly, the silence in my room was broken by the sound of a door slamming up against the wall.

At first, I was surprised. Jace hadn't bothered me since he'd told me about why I was here in the first place, and after that, I hadn't seen hide nor hair of him.

When I looked up, about to ask what he was doing in my room, my mouth snapped shut just as quickly as it had opened.

Isabelle, not Jace, stood in my doorway.

"I'm here to talk to you." She said bluntly, not wasting a breath. "Can I sit?"

I nodded, and she swiftly moved across the room, sitting down on the edge of my bed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice rough and scratchy from lack of use.

Isabelle offered me a small smile. "I'm here to ask you a favor. If you needed comforting, that's Tessa's job. But since she's having the baby, she's been all hormonal lately and Will didn't want to bother her."

"Okay. . .so what's up?"

She stared down at her hands. "Alec is depressed."

I blinked. "I'm, uh, sorry?"

Isabelle shook her head, brushing some of her long hair behind her ear. "Alec is depressed because Jace is depressed." Isabelle frowned. "Well, I say 'depressed,' but he's worse. Much worse. Honestly, I don't blame you for hating him for what he did, I would do the same thing, but Clary. . .it's destroying him."

"What?"

"Jace." She whispered. "He hasn't moved from his bed for days. Hasn't eaten or anything." Isabelle eyed me. "And I'm guessing that you've been doing the same. But that's not the point. I've never seen him like this before. None of us have. And it's really starting to worry me."

"Okay. . .so what do you want me to do?"

"I know you blame him, but you really need to come and talk to him. Not just for him, but for all of us. We're all so worried, Jace has a really bad habit of taking everything on his shoulders and locking himself away, but this is awful. I just. . .please, Clary. Come and talk to him."

I opened my mouth and closed it again. The mention of how badly Jace was doing made my heart clench, but at the same time, I was hesitant to go to him. A part of me wasn't ready to forgive him.

But a bigger part of me was.

I took a deep breath. "Okay." I whispered. "Let's go."

. . .

When we got there, Will was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing a worried frown that wrinkled his forehead.

"Jace, come on." He was saying. "Just please get up and eat something. . ."

I looked down at Jace, who was lying on his side, back facing the doorway, his blonde hair a tousled mess over the blankets.

"Will," Isabelle hissed, and Will looked up, relief flooding his gaze when he saw me.

"Clary," he exhaled. "Thank the angel."

I offered him a small smile.

Jace, on the other hand, still wasn't moving.

"Can I talk to him for a minute?" I asked, surprising myself.

Will and Isabelle exchanged glances before she nodded. "We'll give you guys a few minutes." They said, before backing out of the room and closing the door, leaving me alone with him.

Slowly, I circled the bed before sitting down on the very edge.

Jace's eyes were closed, and his face was paler than I'd ever seen it before. His chest was bare and he was wearing a pair of black sweatpants. He looked as though he hadn't seen food in days.

"Jace?" I whispered, reaching out and touching his arm, and his eyes slowly opened.

"Clary?" He croaked, sitting up a little. "What are you doing here?"

I shrugged. "I wanted to talk to you."

The smallest spark of hope lit Jace's eyes.

I shifted my weight. "What you did. . .I still don't understand it, and maybe I never will. But I'm tired of being mad at you and at myself."

Jace sat up a little further. "I'm sorry. I can't seem to say that enough with you. I'm an idiot, I know. Some of the stuff that I've done. . .well, it's inexcusable. And I know that you probably want to stay mad at me forever, which I really can't blame you for."

"I don't want to stay mad at you anymore." I whispered, and somehow I was closer to him, my hand cupping the back of his neck and feeling the sweet softness of his hair.

"I don't want you to be mad at me forever." Jace murmured, pressing our foreheads together.

Before I could say anything more, he was kissing me.

His lips were hard and soft at the same time, fierce and vulnerable. I locked my hands in his hair, and I doubted that anything could pull me away in that moment.

Jace seemed to have a lot more air than I did, because when I broke away to take a breath, his lips moved down my neck and onto my collarbone, and I gasped as he gently nipped at the skin there.

I ran my fingers down his chest, stopping just above the hemline of his sweatpants when his breath hitched.

"By the angel, Fray." He muttered, breaking away and running a hand through his hair. "Are you trying to take _advantage_ of me? Or do you want me to do something that you're probably going to regret in the morning?"

"I'm not going to regret it."

He chuckled wearily. "You say that now, but I know you, Clary Fray. You might wake up mad at me in the morning." Jace offered me a smirk. "Although, if you wanted to double up in the shower, we could argue that we're trying to save hot water."

"Funny." I said with a playful scowl. "But I'm going to have to pass."

Jace laughed and shook his head, running a hand through his rumpled hair. "Alright, but while I'm in there, brush your teeth. That breath is nasty."

I threw my pillow at him in response, and his chuckle trailer after him the whole way to the bathroom.

 **So yes, I know. Things are happening fast!**

 **There's three days left of finals and I'm freaking out, guys. Like you have no idea!**

 **And the to the guest who is impressed, thank you! All of everyone's comments make me smile.**

 **I honestly have no idea how much longer this story is going to be, because I don't usually plan that stuff out. And my updating schedule is pretty random, because when the inspiration strikes, I write. But when it's not, I don't.**

 **I'd hate to give you guys a crappy chapter, so I hope you all liked this one!**


	24. Chapter 24

Even though Jace and I had reconciled, I could tell things still weren't a hundred percent between us.

Something that looked akin to worry lingered behind his eyes every time I looked at him, at which point he'd look away.

I knew we had been avoiding talking about Sebastian or what Jace had hired him to do. I still didn't know who the man was that hired Jace to bring me here in the first place, and I didn't know if I was ever going to find out.

Truth be told, Sebastian wasn't exactly my favorite conversation topic either. Just the thought of him made a shudder run down my spine.

Maybe I didn't want to talk about it, but I couldn't stand Jace looking at me like a kicked puppy any longer.

"Jace," I said one afternoon. "I think we need to talk."

He glanced over his shoulder at me from where he was standing by the wall of weapons, and cast me a smirk. "Are you breaking up with me, Fray? That'd be a first."

I rolled my eyes. "Ha ha. No, we need to talk about you."

If I didn't know him so well, I wouldn't have been able to see the slight tension that suddenly appeared across the muscles of his back.

"Me?" Jace said, his voice sounding calm, but a little strained. "What about me?"

It was now or never.

"You still haven't let it go." I said, attempting to keep my voice calm, but still failing.

"I have." Jace said, his tone short. "I don't want to talk about it. Okay?"

"That's all we ever do," I hissed. "What happened was terrible, but we never really sat down and discussed it. We've just continued on our merry way, skirting around it whenever the issue comes up," I kept my eyes on his back. "And I'm sick of it."

"I can't talk about it, Clary." He said through clenched teeth. "Just leave it, alright?"

"No. No I'm not going to leave it."

"I know there's nothing you could do that could possibly make you deserve that, but it happened. And it was my fault."

I threw my hands up in the air. "I'm not here to play the blame game, Jace!"

"Then what are you trying to do?"

"I just. . .we've gotten over it so quickly, and I wondered how that was possible. Until now, when I realized we've only succeeded in pushing it to the side."

Jace set down the weapon he was carrying, running a hand through his hair and over his face. "Fine," he said, finally surrendering.

"Why'd you hire Sebastian in the first place?" I asked, keeping my voice quiet.

Jace looked down at his hands. "I wasn't really thinking of you as a person when the guy talked about you," he said. "You were just a thing in my mind. I called Sebastian because I knew he could keep you under control. I just wasn't thinking about at what cost." Jace looked up at me again. "You were ready to sacrifice everything for your mother," he said, nothing about his tone made this a question. "I admired that about you, even if, at first, some part of me hated you."

I blinked. "Why?'

Jace shrugged, leaning back on his elbows. "I guess something about you struck me as different. You didn't react similarly to so many other people that I'd met, and that made me uncomfortable. I had no idea what you were going to do next, and something in me hated you for making me doubt myself." He shook his head, a faint smile playing out on his lips. "You made me do things I wouldn't normally do. Like the thing with the green food?" He scoffed. "If Will ever found out about that, my entire manhood would be held in question."

I wanted to say something, my cheeks were starting to flush red and I had no idea why. How come only Jace could have this infuriating effect on me?

He noticed the look on my face and if I wasn't mistaken, the slightest tinge of pink colored his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck.

 _Stop it, Clary! What are you so embarrassed about anyways?!_

It was hard to say. But the way Jace was looking at me through the strands of soft, golden hair that fell over his forehead was enough to make any girl's mind go blank. He was effortlessly perfect, exactly the kind of guy that made people question how it was even possible to look like he did. I still found myself in awe of him at times, although my attraction to him went deeper than just his high cheekbones and golden eyes that didn't seem to have an end.

I swallowed.

"Oh," I eked out pathetically, and one corner of Jace's mouth tipped. "I. . .um. . .won't tell your cousin?"

Jace laughed, seeming more at ease right away. "I wasn't expecting anything less, Fray."

He moved closer until his face was inches from mine. I was expecting a real kiss, but he lightly pecked the tip of my nose. "You're too easy to tease." He murmured, his grin boyish.

I shrugged. "If only I could get you to stop reminding me of that."

"Never. I'll be making fun of you until the end of time."

I knew I should have been angry at him still, and maybe some part of me, no matter how small, was always going to remember what he had done. And even if I didn't understand it, no matter how badly I wanted to, the bigger part of me was willing to let go. I didn't see the point in arguing over something that had already happened.

"Clary?" Jace asked, breaking me out of my reverie. "Are you okay?"

I offered him a small smile. "I've never been better."

 **Okay, so I know it's been a long time!**

 **I've been trying to find a way to end this chapter for awhile now, since some of you thought they made up too quickly and others thought the timing was good.**

 **This is what I came up with, and I hope you guys all enjoyed reading it!**


	25. Chapter 25

We all know that our worst case scenario is something that's always feared, but in the back of your mind, you never really expect it to be happening to you.

Like right now.

I was in my worst possible situation, and I had already pinched myself multiple times to confirm that I wasn't dreaming. And in that moment, I was positive that nothing could make this any worse than it already was.

Jace had positioned himself between me and the other people who stood at the end of the hallway. Their dark figures were twirling long seraph blades in their hands.

I swallowed.

How was this even possible?

How had I gotten here?

. . .

 _A few hours earlier_

Ever since Jace and I had talked things out, everything seemed to be on the mend.

Sure, there were some things that were never going to ever be the same between us, but I knew that he as well as I were hoping that, with time, things would get better.

And he was already on his way to improvement.

I knew it was a stretch for him to act all cute and sweet all of the time, since he was so accustomed to that tough-guy act where it seemed like he couldn't care less about anything. It took a lot for him to relax around anyone, the tension was always there in his muscles that seemed to be pulled taunt more often than not.

But he was trying.

He still beat himself up over it every day, and sometimes I'd have to pull him out of whatever dark pit he was entering.

I had to pull myself out of my reverie as I yawned, burying my head in my pillow in a vain attempt to shut out the rest of the world. I had been up late last night working like mad on my drawing of Jace. Even now, I wasn't sure if I had drawn it intentionally or if it was just something that was formed at random from the strokes of my pencil. Either way, it was one of my favorites.

I was just about to drift off to sleep when someone pressed a soft kiss to my shoulder that had been exposed from the way my shirt sleeve fell down.

I smiled into the pillow, resisting the urge to laugh as Jace brushed some hair back from my neck to kiss the sensitive spot underneath my ear.

"You need to get up, Clary."

I groaned and rolled over, but that didn't stop Jace.

"Come on, Fray."

Finally giving in, I opened my eyes and was met with Jace's light golden ones, crinkling up at the corners.

"Hey, beautiful."

"It's too early," I whined, reaching to pull the blankets back up over my eyes.

Jace stopped me. "I've been up for hours."

"Well, that's your fault for setting an alarm."

"Mm," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me close to him, his head resting on my stomach.

"Well, thanks. Now I can't move at all."

"That was kind of the idea," Jace replied, his voice muffled by the fabric of my T-shirt.

Since Jace didn't seem to have any will to get up anytime soon, I shook my head and ran my fingers through his golden strands.

"That feels good," he murmured, his eyes closing and breaths evening out.

I should have known he was going to pull something like this, but no part of me was annoyed. Jace's body was warm and it felt nice to be held by him. Shifting my body so that I was more comfortable, I resumed my movements and felt my eyelids drooping with sleep.

Before I could drift off, there was a loud banging noise from downstairs.

Jace was up in half of a second, his golden eyes narrowed and corners of his mouth turned down.

"What is that?" I asked, feeling my eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"Stay here." Jace said, stalking to the door.

"But Jace-"

He turned, his eyes blazing. "I mean it, Clary. Stay here."

I would have objected, but Jace's whole body was tense and he looked poised to attack.

He cast me one last look and slipped out the door.

My heartbeat started racing the moment he was gone. What if some kind of killer was in the house and they got to Jace and my mother?

That thought alone was enough to rouse me from bed.

No. They would have to kill me to get to either of them.

I managed to get out of my bedroom with making little to no noise, and voices floated up to greet me.

"-not here," Jace was saying, his voice stiff. "She ran off long ago and took her mother with her. I sent out search teams, but all they were able to find were scraps of their clothing. They're both probably dead by now."

Frowning, I walked forward and looked down the stairs.

Jace was standing with his back to me, and all that I could see of the other men were their feet.

"And what about my money, Herondale?" The man snapped. "I didn't throw it at you for nothing, you know. I expect to get what I paid for."

I don't know what made me take a step forward, but suddenly one of the men looked up and caught my eye.

"There she is."

Several things happened at once.

Jace turned around and bolted for me, and I ran ahead. The men pulled guns out of their holsters and followed suit.

We ran down the hallway, and once we finally got to a dead end, Jace grasped my hand tightly in his own and we both turned to face the men.

"Well, well," the first and bigger man chuckled, flashing us his shiny white teeth. "An impressive show the two of you put on, I must admit."

Jace grasped my hand more tightly and tried to get me to move behind him, but I refused. Something about this man was so eerily familiar, there was something about him that I recognized. . .

"Clary, get behind me."

I ignored him as I surveyed the other man. They were both so familiar. I was sure that I had seen them before somewhere. . .

The first man seemed to notice my staring. He chuckled and pulled off the dark sunglasses their shielded his eyes, tucking them into his pocket.

"My dear Clarissa, it's been so long since I've last seen my daughter."

 **Hello. . .it's me?**

 **SO SORRY that I dropped off the face of the planet for two months, I've been busy with school and such, and just. . .ugh. Anyways, I'm really happy to be back in this story, and I can I just say how grateful I am that someone might be reading this?**

 **Hope you liked this one, even if I did leave you with another cliffhanger. . .sorry about that.**


	26. Chapter 26

"You don't get to come near her," Jace nearly snarled, and even I shrank back at the sound of his voice.

Valentine, however, looked nearly unaffected. "Hand her over, Jace. Or I'll be forced to have Jonathan take her from you."

 _Jonathan._

My brother.

Jace pushed me further behind him, his grip like iron on my arm. "No."

"I thought we discussed this," Valentine said with a resigned groan. "I really don't want to have to kill you, Jace Herondale."

"Oh, I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

Before Valentine could ask what he was talking about, Jace had a seraph blade in his hand, seemingly having pulled it out of thin air. I watched, open mouthed, as Jace ran forward and attacked Valentine.

He was only caught off guard for a moment or two before he fought back.

I was trying to follow everything that was happening with my eyes, but failed miserably as everything turned into one big blur.

One thing was for sure, though.

I had to help Jace.

I made my way towards them, moving a lot slower than I would have liked, but I was suddenly lifted off of the floor and into the air, someone holding me painfully tightly.

A loud scream escaped my mouth and for a second, Jace turned his gaze back onto me, his face paling and eyes widening in his shock.

That second was all Valentine needed to plunge a knife into Jace's stomach, and he crumpled.

My voice had completely abandoned me as I watched the blood start to pool.

So instead, I somehow managed to kick my brother where the sun doesn't shine.

I bolted over to Jace, whose eyelids were slipping closed and his lips had gone pale. The sight of him lying there was enough to terrify me, but before I could reach him, someone threw something at the back of my head and my world went dark.

. . .

When I woke up, I was shackled to a wall.

My arms were held up on either side of my head and my legs were both encased in chains. Everything hurt, and I wasn't surprised to find dark bruises covering the surface of my body.

For a moment I sat there in silence, and then memories rushed back.

Was Jace okay? What if no one came to his rescue and he died right there on the floor? I would never forgive myself.

I attempted to wriggle from my position, but the chains only seemed to tighten.

Tears of frustration leaked from my eyes and I went slack against the wall, wanting nothing more than to wake up in Jace's house with him lying next to me, smiling that lopsided smile that still got me every time I saw it.

How badly I wanted him to be here I couldn't say, but my breath froze in my chest at the thought that he could be dead because of me.

I squeezed my eyes shut. So now what? Was my mother here too? What did my dad want with me? And Jon? Why were they all working together to torture me?

What if I never got out of here?

I gritted my teeth. No. That wasn't going to happen. My dad, or-er, Valentine, wanted me here for a reason. I might be banged up pretty badly, but nothing life threatening. If he just wanted me dead I was sure that I wasn't going to be sitting here right now.

There was some reason that he had paid Jace to come and train me, and I doubted that it was so we could all have some kind of happy family reunion together.

He wanted some part of me.

And I was going to find out what it was.

. . .

Jace's mouth twisted as he came into consciousness.

"Clary. . ." he mumbled, and then his eyes snapped open.

Will placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sit back, Jace."

"Is she here?" He whispered, his voice almost childlike, but he already knew the answer.

Will slowly shook his head.

Jace's breath hitched. "I need to go and find her," he mumbled, throwing back the blankets. "Why are you all just standing around?"

Will hesitated and looked at Alec, whose expression was stoic.

"Jace. . ." Will began, chewing his lower lip. "We can't trace them."

"So what? You have to tell me that you tried harder than that."

"Well," Will shifted in his seat. "There was so much blood in the hallway, and not your blood. We don't know if she-"

"Stop." Jace cut him off, his eyes blazing. "Clary's not dead. That. . .it wouldn't make any sense." He looked at Alec. "Right?"

"We don't know if there was some kind of accident where the blade slipped, or if something else happened."

"She can't be dead," he mumbled, his hand shaking as he ran it through his hair. "I won't believe it till I see it." He cast a sharp look at the other two boys. "And don't you dare say that I can't handle it."

Jace stood up and threw on the nearest black T-shirt. "Come on." He said, as if daring them to challenge him. "We've got to find her."

"Jace, I really don't think-"

"I owe this to her, Will." Jace snapped. "This whole thing is my fault. I'm the one who put her in danger and may even have cost her her life. We're going to look for her."

"But what if Valentine has killed her already? I'm sorry, Jace, but I don't know if you'll ever be able to recover."

Jace stopped in the doorway, slowly turning back to face Alec. "You should know better than anyone else what it felt like when I lost Ella. I was there as she died. It was my fault then and it's still my fault now. But I am _not_ going to let Clary go so easily. If there's still even the slightest chance that she's still alive, I'm going to find her. Even if she isn't. Finding her dead would be preferable to knowing I gave up so easily and never tried to find her. Believe me, Alec. Getting to see her one last time would be better than never seeing her again. Alive or not."

And with that, Jace disappeared through the door.

 **ANOTHER UPDATE!**

 **I figured I owed you guys, so here it is!**

 **And Jace is so freaking cute. I really want a Jace in my life. That would be kind of awesome.**

 **So Clary's been whisked away by the World's Worst Father and Crappiest Big Brother. If I were her, I can assure you that I WOULD NOT be thinking rationally right about now.**

 **In other news, no more braces for me! I've been happily liberated for a week and a half and I'm loving life.**

 **Not looking forward to being tortured in Spanish class tomorrow but meh. . .what can you do?**


	27. Chapter 27

I had tried every which way to get out of here, but nothing had been working.

But how could I give up so easily? My mother was out there and she needed me, and Jace. . .

I flinched and bit my lip.

I wasn't even sure how long I had been in here for since there weren't any windows. For all I knew, it could have been anywhere from a few weeks to a few days.

Valentine had come down exactly one time, and that was only to gloat on how he'd gotten exactly what he wanted and that he planned to keep me trapped in his basement for a long time.

So my life wasn't looking so good right now.

I doubted that I would ever get out of here. Alive, that is. I had a feeling that Valentine just wanted to use me for one thing and one thing only and then he would kill me.

I only hoped that it would be quick.

The only thing that I did enjoy about this place was tormenting my guard.

Every time I needed something, I had to shout for the guy to hear me, and then I'd typically keep him down here so that I could pester him with dumb questions because I was bored out of my mind.

I mean, seriously? Couldn't I get a crossword puzzle down here or something?

"Hello?" I shouted, rattling my chains for added effect. "HELLO?"

The guard at the top of the stairs came down wearing a scowl. "Yes, Miss. Fray?"

"I'm bored."

He rolled his eyes. "Join the club."

"Well, what do you do for entertainment?"

He cast me a smirk. "I wait for you to call me."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. Do you know when I'm going to be able to move around, or if I'm just going to be stuck here for the remainder of my days?"

"I'm afraid I can't say."

I groaned. "Even a hint?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Well, then what about my mother? Is she okay?"

He sighed. "Miss Fray, I've already answered this question before, and I'm afraid that-"

"She's my mother," I cut him off. "I don't have any other family left. Please."

The guard looked down at the ground. "Your father killed her when he invaded Mr. Herondale's house, Miss Fray."

The weight of the world seemed to press on my chest then, and all that could be heard was a distant ringing in my ears.

My mom was. . .dead?

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, and for the first time since I'd gotten here, he looked genuinely sorry. "I really didn't want to have to tell you. I'm sorry."

I sniffed, frustrated because I couldn't wipe the tears away. "It's not your fault," I mumbled, turning to the side and wiping my nose on my shirt. "At least she died quickly. Not like me. He's going to keep me here until I'm nothing more than a sad excuse for a human being, which I already am, my own mother died when I was _in the house."_

"It's not your fault," the guard replied, echoing my words from earlier. "And I am terribly sorry that this has happened to you."

"Yeah," I mumbled, closing my eyes. "Me too."

. . .

Will had never seen his cousin so persistent on solving anything before.

Although it was obvious how much a plan was needed, Jace was anxious to get going.

Will could relate. If it was Tessa that some guy had locked up and was probably planning to kill, he wouldn't want to spend time with plans either.

"We need a good plan of attack," Jace said, tracing his hands over his best weapons. "Valentine's not going to let us get in there easily, that I know. His house is heavily guarded, and so we're going to need a lot of us." He cast a glance over the room. "More than we have."

"But Shadowhunters are so rare. . ." Simon began.

Jace slammed his hand down on the table and everyone got quiet.

"This is not an issue up for debate," he said, his voice deadly low and calm. "I have every intention of getting Clary back with or without you, and something as simple as a lack of Shadowhunters isn't going to deter me." He threw a look at Simon. "Are we clear?"

Simon nodded.

"Good," Jace snapped, before he turned back to the weapons wall.

. . .

Will found his cousin later in his bedroom.

Jace had never looked so exhausted, dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale and his face drawn.

He looked like a dead man walking.

"Jace?" Will asked softly. "Are you alright?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "I've been worse."

"Have you been sleeping?"

His cousin ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends. "I can't. Every time I fall asleep I have these awful nightmares about what he must be doing to her-" Jace swallowed, cutting himself off. "Instead, I work on a plan that I know is going to fall to pieces anyways because I'm not going to have enough backup or it just isn't going to be enough to keep him from killing her."

"Jace, you can't do this to yourself." Will said, keeping his voice gentle. "I know it's awful, but it isn't your fault."

"But it is." He whispered. "I've killed and driven away _so many_ people in my life. My parents, Ella, and now Clary. . .and no matter what anyone tells me, this is my fault. All my fault. I agreed to train her and take Valentine's stupid money. It's sick. I'm sick for doing this to someone as innocent as she is. No one deserves what he's planning, and I just let him take her."

"You were about half dead when Alec and I found you and applied an iratze. You couldn't stop them. They might have done worse if you had tried to get up again."

"It wouldn't matter," Jace whispered. "At least I wouldn't have to live with this guilt."

Will placed an arm around his cousin, thinking of how strange it was that when Jace first came to live with them, he didn't want to be touched by anyone. Now, it seemed that he craved company more than ever.

"We'll find her," Will promised. "No one here wants Clary gone."

Jace nodded, his eyes vacant. "I suppose," he said with a long sigh, "that you're right."

 **YAY! Another update!**

 **I really wanted to get this one up for you last night on Friday the 13th, but that wasn't happening because I was exhausted and went to bed at, like, eleven.**

 **Anyways, I am SO pumped for Halloween! But I still have no idea what I'm going to be. . .so there's always that problem.**

 **Hope you guys have a great weekend and all that good stuff, and I guess I'll try to update somewhere in the next week or so? But if I don't, then you can always just assume that school has finally succeeding in sucking the life out of me.**


	28. Chapter 28

After what felt like weeks, Valentine finally came to see me.

I no longer could look at him and think 'dad,' because I was sure that no loving, good man would do this to his own daughter. I wasn't even sure if he was even human anymore. There was something about him that seemed almost frozen, that vital part of a human that had the capacity to love was clearly no more. As much as it shamed me to admit it, some part of me was glad that my mother didn't have to see him as he was now.

He came in what I was guessing was the nighttime, his footsteps almost silent on the stairs but not so quiet that I didn't pick up on them. For days, the only sounds had been the sound of silence, and my ears quickly picked up on this change.

Valentine stood in front of me now, and I peered back up at him, wishing badly that I had some leverage so I could kick him or spit in his face. But no one looks very threatening with their arms chained above their heads and sitting on the ground. I hadn't showered since I got here, and I was pretty sure that that was the most frightening thing about my appearance.

"Clarissa," he sneered, one side of his mouth curling up. "It has been. . .so long."

"Not long enough if you ask me," I grumbled. "Why am I here?"

He knelt down so that he was almost at my height, just a little taller than I was. "Because, it would seem that you have a very important gift that your mother passed onto you."

I stared him down, refusing to be frightened of the way he was looking at me. "And what might that be?"

Valentine smirked, flashing me his teeth. "You can create runes."

. . .

For a second I stared at him, my mouth slightly open.

"But that's. . .not possible." I stammered. "No one can create runes-"

Valentine gave an exasperated sigh, seemingly ready to chuck me out the nearest window. "Sometimes I forget how little you know. It's a gift given to very few, and over the years even those numbers have dwindled. You and your mother were the only ones left."

I blinked. "Then why did you kill her?"

He shrugged, as if the life of the woman who was once his wife meant nothing to him. Which, I supposed, given the fact that he was a heartless jerk, wasn't too far off the line. "She was a burden, and she couldn't draw the runes like she used to. So I knew that you would be able to do it."

"How?" I demanded, some of my fury coming back. "I've never even touched a stele before!"

"You see, that's where your wrong," Valentine continued, clearly enjoying my discomfort. "When you were young I allowed you to hold my stele for a few moments, and you thought it was a pencil, and so you used it on the paper. At first, I thought nothing of it, but then when I set something back down on that same sheet, it seemed that the object had disappeared into the paper. And then I knew that Jocelyn was not the only gifted one in the family."

I swallowed back my anger. "And now you want what?"

"Why Clary," Valentine said with another one of his twisted smiles. "I thought it was obvious. I need you to help me build my army."

. . .

"We leave tonight," Jace said stiffly, shoving a blade into his belt. "I don't know how much time we have left."

He shot a look back at his _parabatai_ and his cousin. "Don't even try to talk me out of this. I've already made up my mind."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Will muttered, turning to Alec. "Where's Magnus? He said he'd be here by now."

Alec shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, but failing miserably. "I'm not sure, but he's hardly ever late-"

Suddenly, as if he had been summoned by the Angel Raziel himself, Magnus burst through the front door, his cat's eyes flashing and his mouth set in a straight line. Needless to say, it was the most serious that any of the boys had ever seen him. Even Jace paused his mad rummaging through a trunk of weapons to acknowledge the warlock's presence.

It was Alec, unusually enough, who spoke first. "Magnus," he said, his voice strangely tight. "What's wrong?"

Magnus shook his head. "It's Valentine," he spat. "I can't get through the boundaries."

It was Jace's turn to talk. "What?" He said sharply. "I thought we discussed this last night, and you said that it wouldn't be a challenge at all-"

"That's what I thought," Magnus interjected. "Don't mistake me for a fool, Jace Herondale. I have been in this business far too long. And this I know for sure; the boundaries cannot be penetrated, not by me at least."

"Well, then, what are we to do?" Will demanded, all heads snapping in his direction. "Just wait around until he kills her?"

Before Jace could object, Magnus smoothly cut him off. "Not quite, little Shadowhunter. Valentine isn't going to kill her."

Jace let out one humorless laugh. "And you know this how?"

"Because he wouldn't have gone through all of this trouble to get her if all he was going to do in the end was take her life. Think about it for a moment. It doesn't make sense, does it?"

Will shook his head slowly. "How often does Valentine make sense?"

Jace swallowed. "He's never been unmotivated before, everything he does has some kind of reason behind it, no matter how sick and twisted it may appear to us. But I know that he does want something with Clary, and whatever it is, it can't be good."

Alec looked like he had something to add for a moment, but then there was a loud knocking on the door. All four of them turned towards it with a frown, and then the sound came again. Before anyone could move forward, the door burst open and all of Hell came rushing in.

 **Annnnnd we are ALMOST at chapter thirty!**

 **Whoa, I know it's been awhile guys, but I open everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! I ate so much turkey and did way too much shopping. . .ugh. So glad it's Friday again!  
**

 **And I'm ready for Christmas! I've been eating candy canes nonstop, and my cat has been climbing the tree again, which is a sign that Christmas is actually here.**

 **Only 23 days left! :)**

 **-Sara**


	29. Chapter 29

When the my world finally came to an end, it was so much blacker than I thought it would be.

I had always, perhaps with ignorance, assumed that there would be a burst of light behind my eyelids before everything was gone. Like a the final light at the end of the tunnel. But this was bleaker. And it hurt more than I thought it would.

My hands were shaking with exhaustion and my eyelids were slowly closing. Why couldn't my way out of this world be easy? Why did I have to suffer so much when I'd done nothing wrong?

Being able to create runes was something that interested Valentine greatly, and he wanted to find out just how I did it. So he had tried to get me to draw, but when that didn't work, he refused to give up. Whatever I was hooked up to now was sucking all of the power, and the life, right out of me.

 _I was going to die._

This realization should have frightened me, it should have had my blood running cold and my breath stopping in my throat. But at the moment, I could barely get enough breath into my lungs as it was.

No one was coming. I was slowly dying and no one knew where I was. No one never know what happened to me or how they could have prevented it. Was there even anyone who cared?

I suddenly had the urge to cry, but even that seemed to take too much effort. So I just laid my head down and closed my eyes, willing the world to go away and for death to finally place its icy hands on my neck.

 _"Clary!"_ Someone was yelling, or at least I thought they were. Their words were like an insistent pounding on the inside of my head, a pounding that I couldn't seem to get away from. I willed them to go away.

But then it came again, louder and more frantic this time, almost as if they were standing right in front of me. I turned down the corners of my mouth. I knew that voice, why did I know that voice. . .

Suddenly, an image of a boy with tousled golden hair and bright eyes of the same color sprang into focus. His crooked smile, the pain on his face. . .I knew him, and his name wasn't a mystery to me.

"Jace," I whispered, willing myself to say it louder, to get something, _anything_ out so that he could hear me. I drew in a weak breath and tried to speak louder. "Jace." I said again, my voice growing in strength.

And then he wasn't just a voice. He was sitting in front of me, his hands bound behind his back. "Oh, Clary." He whispered, his golden eyes wide. "Can you hear me?"

I swallowed. "Yes," I replied, my voice still low, but I blinked, squinting at him.

Jace looked awful. His face was smudged with dirt and bruises, and there were crisscross markings that looked deep and painful across his shoulders and the front of his chest. His eyes looked hollow, but his mouth was set in that line that told me he was trying to keep himself in place.

"Just hang on," Jace whispered. "Please hang on. Don't give up yet. . ."

But I couldn't hear him anymore. My world had already faded into darkness.

. . .

She was dying. That much Jace knew.

He cursed Valentine for doing this to him, and to Clary.

It was a thousand times more painful than it had been back at his own house, to watch the life slowly fade from her eyes and not be able to do anything about it. He knew Valentine had placed some kind of invisible shield up between him and Clary, enough for him to see her and hear her, but not touch her.

Jace's hands were beginning to ache from where they were tied at his wrists, but every time he tried to tug at them, they only seemed to get tighter.

"Clary," he said again, as if her name would keep him here for just a little while longer. But she didn't respond. Jace's pulse sped as he took a closer look at her, only to find that her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving.

A strange ringing noise began in his ears and suddenly Jace couldn't seem to get enough breath into his chest. She couldn't be dead, not yet. He wasn't going to let someone else he cared about die right before his eyes when he could stop it. He hadn't been able to save his sister, but he was going to save Clary.

"Come on," Jace mumbled, tugging at the bonds and wincing as they bit into his flesh. "By the Angel," he groaned when the pain worsened.

"You'll never get out that way."

Turning, Jace saw a young man who probably was around his own age standing there, dressed in the typical guard outfit. His eyes were fixed on Jace, who was imaging that he didn't nearly live up to the expectations of the strong and powerful Shadowhunter that was always portrayed on television.

"Well then," he spat out. "What do you suggest I do?"

The guard sighed, before unlocking the door and quickly untying Jace's bonds, glancing over his shoulder as he did so. "I've never cared that much for Valentine anyway, but you need to save her," he said, nodding his head towards Clary, a strange tenderness in his eyes. "She's special."

"Yeah, I got that." Jace snapped, his back throbbing from where the lashes had been driven. He needed to get his stele, and quick.

The guard frowned. "Look, I'll take down the shield, but it's not going to be easy getting out of here."

"Well then, what do you suggest?"

The guard smirked, something familiar glowing in his eyes for a half a second before it was gone, and he began to tell Jace his plan.

 **Hello again!**

 **I guess I'm back on. . .some kind of schedule? I'll try to update more often and not leave you guys hanging for a month at a time!**

 **Hope you all liked this chapter, I really like this one!**


	30. Chapter 30

"I'm not sure this is going to work," Magnus mumbled, watching as Will worked to pry the bars of the prison apart with the seraph blade, but so far they hadn't been giving at all.

"Well, I've got to try, haven't I?" Will snapped. "I've got to get to Jace and make sure Tessa's alright. . .if he even gets within a foot of her I swear I'll chop his arm off. . ."

"Now now," Magnus said with a sniff. "Let's not get violent."

Will snorted, ignoring Magnus' words. "If I just had the right blade. . ."

"Not even my magic is strong enough, little Shadowhunter." Magnus hissed. "What makes you think that a blade will do any different?"

Will was about to open his mouth in protest, when there was a large crash from behind them.

Both men whirled around, partially expecting to see some kind of avenging Angel in all of their fiery glory, but there was no such sight.

There was however, a very worn-looking Jace Herondale holding a limp Clary in his arms.

"Take her. . ." he mumbled, his hands shaking. And that's when Will noticed the scourge marks on his back, arms and chest. "Please, Will. She's dying."

Will grabbed Clary just in time. Jace slumped over before Magnus caught him.

"Maybe we should trade," Will said, eyeing Jace who was limp in Magnus' grasp.

"If you insist on taking the fat one, then yes." Magnus said, passing Jace to Will with ease as Will handed over Clary. "I'll take the biscuit."

"Good," Will grunted, throwing one of Jace's arms over his shoulder. "Now, let's go. I doubt that we have all that much time left."

. . .

My eyes remained stubbornly closed.

I couldn't seem to open them even if I wanted to. And I was trying as hard as I could. But it was as if my body wasn't even my own anymore. There was nothing stopping me from floating far, far away from this miserable place.

I could feel myself being constantly thrown and jostled in what felt like a million different directions, so many voices shouting around me.

 _Why couldn't they all be quiet?_

And at my command, it was suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch.

Everything around me was silent, and I was finally able to open my eyes to the horror that awaited me.

There were bodies lying everywhere, some in worse shape than others.

But the worst ones had to be Alec, Magnus, Will and Jace.

I squinted, hardly able to believe my eyes.

"No," I whispered, crawling across the floor to where they all lay. "Please. . .no."

Jace was so pale, like everything had been physically drained out of him. The scars on his back were still bleeding, the blood flowing freely now.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I had to work to fight them off.

Was I too late?

"You can still save them, you know."

I turned, only to see the guard who had been outside of my cell for the past few days standing there, wearing an ironic little smile.

A smile that I knew.

"Jonathan," I whispered. "You betrayed me, betrayed mom. How could you do this?"

He knelt beside me. "I didn't. I disguised myself as someone else so he wouldn't recognize me. It's only now that I knew it to be safe to lift. The other Jonathan, the one that came to your house, wasn't me. Dad knew that I would never do anything like that to you, so he remade me if you will. I was cast aside and left to die, but I found another way, and so I've been disguising myself for the past few years, working in his house and learning his motives until I knew that I could finally change things. And I did. Today."

"Why didn't you try to warn me?" I croaked out.

"I didn't know, Clary. I knew how to work the force field, but even that took a long time for him to entrust me with. He didn't tell me his plans, until one day you showed up here, and believe me, I wanted to help you get out. But I knew I couldn't without putting both of us at risk. I needed more backup."

"Jon. . ." I whispered. "What do I do?"

He placed his hand over mine, his green eyes warm. "Nothing."

My eyes widened. "I can't-"

"I have to do it, Clary. I'm the only one whose strong enough." He said, something like fierce determination in his eyes. "Be sure to look aw-"

Before he could say anything else, the room was bathed in a bright light.

I closed my eyes, and felt my body being lifted.

. . .

Suddenly, I wasn't on the ground anymore.

I was watching the scene from above, almost as if I was nearly touching the ceiling.

I was in my room, and below me was my bed and. . .was that me lying on it? I peered a little closer, unable to believe my eyes. I looked awful.

My skin was pale and my cheeks looked hollow. There were numerous scratches on my arms and legs, and I looked as close to death as you could possibly be.

But none of that was what worried me so much.

Jace was sitting beside the bed in the armchair, his arm resting on the bed, arm hiding his face. At first I thought he was asleep, but when I heard the frantic whispering of words, I knew I was wrong.

 _"Come on, come on."_ Jace was saying as I stood next to him. "Just please, give me some kind of sign, okay? I need to know you can hear me, Fray."

When my body on the bed didn't move, Jace just lifted his head, propping his chin up on his hand. "I know it's stupid, and they told me that your going to be dead by morning anyways, but I just wanted the chance to say goodbye."

He looked awful. I ached to put my arms around his neck and kiss him until he was smiling once more. But right now it looked as if nothing could erase the look of hollow loss on Jace's face.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "You have no idea how sorry I am. I just need the chance to tell you that, for your sake as well as mine, no matter how selfish it sounds. I don't want you to leave, Clary. You can't."

My form was silent.

Jace sighed, kissing my hand. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay here until the sun comes up."

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself back into my own body. There had to be some way. . .I couldn't be dead. Not yet.

"Come on," I mumbled. "Just one more shot. That's all I need."

As if my prayers were being answered, there was the sound of roaring in my ears and then a flash of light before my eyes.

I gasped, my eyelids flying open.


	31. Chapter 31

"Clary?" Jace whispered, his tone disbelieving. "Are you awake?"

I turned my head to the side, wincing a little at the sudden movement. But it was totally worth it to see the look on Jace's face.

His eyes were wide and unfocused like he had just witnessed a miracle, and his fingers were slightly outstretched as if he wanted to reach for my hand. But despite this, there was a look of disbelief in his eyes.

I nodded. "Yes," I whispered. "I'm here."

Jace didn't move for a moment, and then he got up from his chair, stopping at the foot of my bed and gripping the post in his fingers so that his knuckles turned white. "Are you in any pain?"

I ignored his question. "Jace, what's the matter?"

He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes flickering to my own for a moment before he looked away once again. "You. . .you're okay, right?"

"I'm getting there."

Something in him seemed to unlock, and he came and sat next to me on the bed. "I'm glad."

Ignoring the pain that shot through my limbs at the action, I nearly threw myself at him, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck. "I thought you were dead," I whispered, hugging him tighter. "I never thought I'd see you again. When they got you there was so much blood. . ."

He kissed the side of my head, his arms going around my waist. "I doubt I scared you half as bad as you did me. You practically went out right before my eyes, Fray. And there was no where I could get help."

"How did you do it?" I asked, not pulling away. "Get out, I mean."

"Some guard helped me," Jace said, and I could feel him shrug. "Took down the shield so that I could get to you, and you fell right into me." He swallowed. "But when I turned to look for the guy again, he wasn't there."

I blinked back tears. "T-there was no one there with me when you guys woke up?"

Jace shook his head. "No one, Clary."

Before I knew what was happening, I was crying like I had never cried before. All of my energy just came out, all the hate and anger that I'd felt over losing my whole family. My mom was dead, her life taken by my dad, I'd lost my brother what felt like twice.

It was a small wonder that I didn't fall to pieces.

Jace didn't say anything, and he didn't have to. We laid down on my bed, and he held me as I cried, his chin resting on the top of my head.

At that moment, his arms were the only thing that were keeping me in place.

He rocked me softly as I cried for my brother, the one I'd missed for years and had gotten back only for a few moments before he was taken from me yet again.

My heart ached at the thought that the last thing he'd ever done was for me.

I cried impossibly harder.

Jace's hands moved in soothing circles on my back, humming under his breath as he kissed the top of my head.

I my tears were what drove me to sleep.

. . .

When I finally woke up, Jace was once again nowhere to be found.

I hadn't exactly been expecting anything else, but my heart did sink a little when I realized that he wasn't lying in bed beside me. But the sheets were warm, so I knew he couldn't have been gone for too long.

Before I could bring myself to move, the door was opening and closing again, and someone was creeping across the floor towards me, lying down at my side.

"Clary?" He murmured, his breath touching my ear. "Are you awake?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I croaked, my voice coming out hoarse. I cleared my throat. "I'm really sorry about last night."

"Don't be," Jace said as I turned around to face him. His eyes were like liquid gold, and I reached out to touch his cheek.

"I just. . .that guard was Jon."

Jace frowned, a little crease appearing between his eyebrows. "But I thought-"

"I know," I said quickly. "But Valentine did something to him, and suddenly there were two Jonathans instead of only one. And he was my brother." My voice dropped to a whisper.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Fray." Jace murmured, kissing the top of my head. "But at least you know he loved you, you know? He wasn't evil like you thought he was."

"Yeah," I replied, closing my eyes. "I am glad he turned out okay."

For the longest time, neither Jace nor I said anything.

He was a silent presence in the room, comforting me without words.

And so there was finally silence.

. . .

"You don't have to do this, you know." Tessa said, eyeing me warily. "I mean, I know it's a lot to take in and all with what happened, but don't you-"

"I want to do this," I said firmly.

Seeing my father and Sebastian wasn't going to be easy. They'd dragged me through some awful stuff, and I wasn't going to forget that anytime soon

But I was tired of hating them so much. What they did was terrible, but I was doing this for me, not them.

"I have to move on sometime, right?" I said, turning to Tessa, who was sitting on the edge of the bed with a hand on her ever-growing stomach.

"You do," she said softly. "As hard as it is. I just wasn't sure if you were ready yet."

"Jace has already interrogated me fifty times," I said with a snort. "It took a lot of convincing for him to even consider it."

"I figured," Tessa said, jumping up to give me a quick hug. "Good luck, and be careful, Clary."

"I'll try," I said with a smile.

Once she was gone, Jace stepped in, offering me a crooked smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

We walked out into his car and he followed right behind me, closing the door firmly behind both of us.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine," I said, biting my lip. "I just. . .I'm just a little nervous is all." Before Jace could protest, I placed my hand over his mouth. "But I still want this."

He nodded as I moved my hand away. "I got it. But if you need me to step in or anything, I will. Okay?"

"As you've already told me a thousand times."

He chuckled. "I just want to keep you safe, Fray. Safe and happy. Is that really too much to ask?"

I frowned. "Knowing the both of us, I don't think that's a fair question."

Jace sighed as the car rolled to a stop. "Truer words were never spoken."

The driver opened the door and let Jace and I out. He took my hand and pulled me into the nearby building.

"This is a highly secret location," he explained in a low voice as we walked. "No one knows where it is except for me and a few others, like Will and Alec and some selective members of my staff. So I think the message that you shouldn't parade this information is pretty clear, okay?"

I nodded. "I got it."

Jace turned from me for a moment, as he punched in a password and then something else scanned his eye.

A door opened up in the floor, revealing dark steps that didn't seem to have an end.

Jace took my hand, giving it a small squeeze.

And then we descended.

 **Ah! It's done!**

 **This chapter took me so long to write, partially because I'm lazy and secondly because some of it got deleted and then I had to rewrite it.**

 **Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone! Or if you don't celebrate Christmas, I still hope you guys have a wonderful day, a happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa! I hope we all keep the reason for our celebration in our minds this season, and I hope that everyone has a great holiday season!**

 **Much love,**

 **Sara**


	32. Chapter 32

The first thing that hit me about the prison cell was that it was near freezing.

As soon as Jace and I took our first steps into the basement, an involuntary shiver raced up my spine, and I rubbed my arms, trying to bring some warmth back into them.

Jace looked back at me. "Sorry. I probably should have warned you that it's colder than the ninth circle of Hell down here."

I smiled. "Haha. I don't know how your not freezing in a T-shirt."

He shrugged. "Herondales are invincible."

My snort was so loud I'd be surprised if both Sebastian and my father didn't hear it.

Jace grinned, and we continued our walk.

In my mind, I had pictured what this place might look like. The very place that haunted my dreams as well as the people that dwelled here. Ever since I had decided to do this, my mind was constantly bombarded with images of both Sebastian and my father, their dark eyes and demon smiles. I had seen this place as dark and wet, and although I had gotten the temperature right, everything else that I had visualized was completely wrong.

First of all, there was no darkness once we reached the bottom of the steps.

Jace instead flipped a light switched and I had to squint to adjust my eyes to the lighting.

Everything down here seemed to be made of steel, it's surface clean and gleaming. To be honest, it resembled one of those surgery rooms that I had seen on TV more then I thought it resembled a prison, and it didn't help that I didn't see any cells.

I was just about to turn my head and ask Jace where the cells were, but he shook his head and took my hand once more, giving it a squeeze before he stepped up to the wall in front of us and placed his hand against it.

I probably should have been used to seeing stuff like this by now, but I still found myself slightly astonished when the surface glowed and a small panel opened, just wide enough to look through.

"It's bulletproof glass," Jace murmured, just loud enough so only I could hear him.

I swallowed. "Sebastian?"

He tilted his chin up, and I looked inside.

The room looked like the rest; spotless and impossible to break through. The ceilings were at least fifteen feet tall, and the whole thing was smooth and shiny, and I guessed this was so whoever was in there couldn't climb up the walls and hatch some kind of escape plan.

Sebastian was the only unclean thing in the room.

He was sitting in the far corner, his long legs stretched out in front of him. His hair was startlingly black against the light surface, and there was a look in his dark eyes that unnerved me.

"You didn't tell me you were stopping by, Herondale." Sebastian said, and I flinched at his voice. After all this time, I still couldn't look at him without a torrent of horrible memories coming to surface.

"I like to keep things interesting." Jace said. "Surprising people is one of my many talents."

Sebastian stood up to his full height and walked over to the window, giving me a demented sort of grin. "Clary Fray." He said. "Well, well. Don't _you_ clean up nicely."

"I didn't come here to play games, Sebastian." I said, only slightly shocked to find out how cold my voice had become.

"What did you come here for then?" He demanded, his eyes sharp. "Some kind of closure?"

"Actually," I said, looking back at Jace, "I did."

He snorted. "This should be good."

I stood to my full height, which actually wasn't all that much, and looked him right in the eye, black meeting green. "I hope you realize that you don't have any hold on me anymore, Seb. I gave up being a toy for your amusements a long time ago."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Right. It looks like you haven't changed much from being that stupid little girl who liked to draw pictures of her dreams. Don't you know that even if I'm gone, your life is really never going to be a fairytale?"

"I'm not looking for a fairytale." I replied softly. "I'm just looking for better." I looked up at Sebastian and shook my head. "Bye, Seb. I'm sorry things turned out this way."

Jace stepped up and said something else before he slid the panel shut, and Sebastian was gone.

The minute he was out of sight, something in me snapped and I threw my arms around Jace, who caught me gratefully.

"You're okay, you're fine." He murmured, brushing some hair back from my face and kissing my forehead. "He's gone, and you never have to see him again."

I nodded, closing my eyes. "I'm okay. I just needed a minute."

"Are you sure. . ."

"I want to see Valentine." I said, collecting myself.

Jace didn't argue, just led me further down the hall.

. . .

Seeing my father was somehow a thousand times worse than I could have imagined.

He was bone thin and mad looking, his hair dirty and his eyes wild.

I wondered for a moment if he was even sane.

"Who is it?" He snapped, moving much faster than I thought him capable of. He was across the room from me one minute, and then no less than a foot away the next. I took a step back.

"Ah," he said, "Clarissa. I confess I was not expecting to see you here."

I swallowed. "Valentine."

"What?" He scoffed. "No 'dad?'"

"Not after what you did to me."

He leaned against the wall. "Why are you here?"

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

"Just as I thought," he said with an irritated sigh.

"You didn't ruin my life," I said in a small voice. "I just wanted you to know that."

He looked slightly appalled, and his face was frozen in that expression as Jace leaned forward and pressed his hand against the wall, shutting the panel.

We were silent on the rest of the way to the car, but the minute we got in the tears started to come, unbidden.

"Clary, Clary," Jace whispered, his voice falling and rising as he spoke to me, slipping between English and Welsh.

 _Rydych chi'n ddiogel, peidiwch â chriw_

 _You're safe, please don't cry._

Jace didn't usually speak Welsh around me, he usually only traded phrases with Will when the two of them didn't want anyone to know what they were saying, save for Cecily, who usually just rolled her eyes and responded in kind.

Jace's arms went around me, holding me close to him.

I didn't really even hear what he was saying, but his voice was low and comforting in my ear, and I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift.

 **HAPPY 2018!  
**

 **Haha, yes, I'm aware that I'm five days late, but I can't believe it's 2018! 2020 still seems so far away and it's really only 2 years. . .**

 **Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year! Sorry about the late update, I was. . .um. . .busy being lazy?**

 **I hope to have the next update up ASAP, and have a great weekend!**


	33. Chapter 33

_A few months later. . ._

"It's just a date, Clary. Just a simple date."

This was my new mantra as I slipped into the fashionable black dress that Isabelle had laid out for me. It was a little more close-fitting than I would have liked, but with Isabelle, I had learned not to argue.

Lately, things had slowed down but then gotten just a little crazy.

But in a really good way.

Will and Tessa had finally gotten married and their baby had arrived shortly after. They had decided to name him James, just like Will's _parabatai_ who had become a Silent Brother.

James was adorable, even I had to admit. I had always been wary around small children because I was afraid that if I picked them up, then they would break or something.

Jace still wasn't completely at ease with him either.

I knew it had been a long time since he had been around any really small children, and he usually avoided holding James if he could. The baby had grown on me more recently, and where I had been pretty indifferent about having kids before, I decided that I really wanted them someday.

Finally, I finished clipping my hair back and gave myself a quick glance in the mirror. The dress looked nice, and I was glad that I could get away with wearing flats, since there was no way I would be able to make it through the night without tripping and falling on my face with heels on.

I took a deep breath and walked out of my bedroom door.

Jace was waiting, leaning up against the wall until I walked out, when he immediately straightened his posture.

He was dressed in a black button down shirt that I was sure he had been forced into, and dark pants. His blonde hair was left in a complete disarray, the gold looking ten times brighter tonight. His eyes widened when he saw me, and I was pretty much self-conscious right away, although I couldn't deny the tingles that I felt running all up and down my back at his gaze.

"You look. . .wow." He said, the first time I'd ever seen him at a loss for words. "Beautiful." Jace said, finally finishing his sentence properly.

My cheeks turned fire engine red. "Thanks," I replied, giving him a little smile. "You look really nice too."

Jace scoffed, already recovered. "I look extraordinary," he said, one corner of his mouth curling to show me that he was joking. "So, I take it you're ready?"

I nodded. "Yeah, let's get going."

Almost tentatively, he linked his hand with my own, giving my fingers a tight squeeze.

Before I could say anything, Jace was pulling me through the house until we got out to the car. He opened the door for me and then got into the driver's side, slamming the door shut behind him.

I hummed as I switched on the radio, searching for a proper station.

I was mostly relaxed, but Jace seemed a little tense, his fingers tapping restlessly on the steering wheel and he seemed to be thinking deeply about something.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, shaking himself out of his reverie. "I'm fine."

"So, where are we going?" I asked, hoping that I could get it out of him. Jace was usually top secret when it came to planning dates, and I never knew what we were doing until he pulled up in the car.

His lips twitched. "Nice try, Fray. That remains yet to be seen."

I groaned jokingly. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Too bad."

Although I continued to pester him about it for the remainder of the drive, Jace was unrelenting until we pulled up to a restaurant.

"Happy now?" He asked as he opened my door.

I laughed, leaning over and kissing his cheek. "Very. Thank you."

There were little white string lights decorating the outside porch, and the building itself looked small on the outside, for which I was a little surprised. Jace was a big believer in the phrase 'go big or go home,' and although I appreciated all of his big gestures, small ones like this were the ones that I loved more than all the others.

To my surprise, Jace led me around the back of the building to where a table was sitting alone on the outside, sheltered by a wide awning. Fairy lights twinkled, making the space out to be warm.

I couldn't help but grin as I sat down.

A few seconds later, a waiter appeared and took our orders before leaving Jace and I in peace once again.

He was still fiddling with the ring around his finger and underneath the table, I could tell that his knee was bouncing up and down.

I eyed him warily. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, waving me off. "I'm just thinking about something is all."

Jace was quiet that evening, his usual witty quips were nowhere to be found. I tried to talk to him a few times, but I was pretty socially inept, and when there was zero effort on the half of the other party, it makes things about ten times harder.

When the dinner was over, Jace didn't hesitate to stand and walk with me back to the car. We were silent most of the ride home, and when we got back, I collapsed in my room, feeling strangely disappointed for some reason.

With a sigh, I stripped off my dress and put on my favorite pair of pajamas before crawling under my fluffy comforter and closing my eyes.

I could just feel the sleep prickling at the edges of my vision when I was jolted awake by the sound of a thud.

Followed by another.

And another.

With a groan, I threw off my covers, knowing that Jace was probably doing target practice.

Again.

I shivered as I walked down the steps, pausing for a moment outside of the door before I went inside, only to see him standing with his back to me, muttering curses under his breath.

"Jace?"

He whirled around, pushing some of his hair off of his face. He was dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a similar T-shirt, a light sheen of perspiration already covering his face and arms.

"I thought you were going to sleep," he said, walking forward and yanking the knife out of the target, twirling it between his fingers. "Why are you still up?"

I shrugged. "I heard you. I wanted to make sure everything's alright."

Jace let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes. For the last time, everything's fine. Go to sleep, okay?"

I sat down on the mat. "Jace."

"What?"

"You said you weren't going to do that anymore."

One corner of his mouth curled. "I'm not."

"Well, your not being honest. So out with it."

He sighed, sinking down next to me. "I'm just mad at myself. That's all."

"For what?"

Jace tugged on the ends of his hair. "For not being able to do anything, especially this, right."

"Jace-"

He shook his head. "If I ask you something, will you give me a serious answer?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course."

"Okay," Jace cleared his throat. "Will you marry me?"

For a second all I could do was just stare at him, my mouth agape. One corner of his mouth twitched. "Clary?"

"Shh," I whispered. "I'm thinking."

Jace leaned back on his hands, seeming unperturbed. "Sure."

"Are _you_ sure?"

"About what?"

"About wanting to marry me!"

"One hundred and ten percent. Have you had enough time to think it over yet?"

Despite myself, I started laughing as the reality of the situation began to sink in. I threw my arms around Jace's neck, nearly knocking him to the ground in the process.

"Oomph," he said. "Well, I was hoping for a yes, but that works too."

"You're an idiot," I said, unable to keep from giggling.

"You're a strange one," he retorted, but he was grinning crookedly. "So? Will you?"

"Of course," I said, kissing him on the mouth. "I freaking love you."

"I freaking love you too, Fray," Jace said, leaning up to kiss me properly. "Oh! I almost forgot."

For a second he dug around in his pocket before producing a small black box. My eyes widened.

"Here," he said, pressing it into my palm as we both sat up. "Open it."

I did, feeling my eyes widen as I looked down at the ring.

It had a gold band, and all in all, it was relatively simple, for which I was grateful. There was a small diamond that was delicately balanced on the middle of the ring, and I found myself fascinated, turning it this way and that to see how it reflected the light.

"It's beautiful," I whispered, slipping it onto my finger. "Thank you."

"Thank _you,"_ Jace said. "Now, I think we should go and celebrate with a midnight breakfast."

"But we just ate dinner!" I protested, a smile already beginning to work it's way across my face.

Jace shrugged. "So? I'm still hungry."

He tugged me to my feet and wrapped an arm around my waist, whisking me into the kitchen.

. . .

Of course it was a night that I wasn't ever going to forget.

And made me look back to where it all started.

A boy, a girl, a vow. How strange it was that two very different people both meant for destruction brought each other together.

Jace was still getting over the death of his sister when we met. Sometimes I know that he'll never be over that. I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about Jon, my father, and my mother. Their loss will forever weigh on my heart.

But when Jace or I wake the other up in the middle of the night, he's never hesitant to hold me. Sometimes he asks, sometimes he doesn't because he knows the words just won't come.

I know he still dreams about Ella. He tries to hide it, but there are moments when I wake up to feel him pulling me closer, and I'll roll over and soothe him.

But we're working on healing. I have a new family now, Will, Simon, Izzy, Alec, Magnus, Cecily, Tessa, Jace, even Gabriel.

And although there are still those nights, there are still better days. I'll never forget the look on Jace's face on our wedding day, or when we found out that I was pregnant.

I watch him now, rolling around in the grass with the little boy, his hair as blonde as Jace's but his eyes as green as mine. And the one that hasn't been born yet.

He was nearly terrified when we first found out, but a lot has changed since then. He's grown to love more than he ever thought he could. And although a story like this could go on forever, I think it's best to end it here.

The rest. . .well, you can only imagine what happens next.

 **Ta-da! The final chapter!**

 **I've been sitting on this one for a while now, and I'm so glad that I finally got it out there!**

Thank you so much to the wonderful people who took the time to read this story, and the ones who left me reviews! I love reading every one of them.

To the Guest who wanted some book recommendations, try the Silver Trilogy by Kerstin Gier, Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone, Between the Lines and Off the Page by Jodi Picoult, or the Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han. These are a few of my favorites that I read a lot, and they will definitely keep you interested!

Ending a story like this has been bittersweet, but you guys have all been so supportive and I just wanted to let you know how much that means to me! This is the third book that I've ever finished, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it just as much as I have writing it!

 **Until the next story I guess? ;)**

 **-Sara**


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